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SPEECHES OF HON WELL4M I). KELLEY. 



REPLIES 






HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY 



GEORGE NORTHROP, ESQ., 



JOINT DEBATE IN THE FOURTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 

1864. 






Reply of Hon. William D. Kelhy to George 
Northrop, Esq. 

IN THE HALL OF THE SPRING GARDEN INSTITUTE FRIDAY EVENINC 

SEPTEMBER 23,1864. EVENING, 



PH0NOGRAPHIC REp OKT BY D. WOLFE BROWN 

f^Jni::-;;;,^ 

discuss the questions, the principles nil , , °fn ^ and hear ««* representatives 

political .machinery will certainly have been made Sn iu^ "nprovemem in our 
be as 81 lent throughout the discussion as vou have been i° ,H ' °^ evci ? friend of mine will 
I am quite sure that thus, who diffe? from me in opinion 1 ill" 1 " ""i ! PGech ? m have heard 
M treatment with which the suggestions or tnei^^^ 

^n'b^ Party, with the first two propositions 

by Jim, but mvited, to meet you and discuss tff issues o 'lUT^ , ' ^ '"" S ^ challenged 

to do so fearlessly and in the spirit of a oatriot st ill y Wlth hlm " J sh::I1 endeavor 

country and yours, the home of our prosperity ' " °"' V "' P r0mote the wel&w of my 

have said, I accept this proposition 1^™ X ; Wd° ft ^ ? f "'«' States '' ^ 
tain. It controls the conduct of the members of I ! . - A u d "^ration »"" ' >"s- 

however, to mark a single phrase not 1 ,, , i i ! ] • '" whlch ' belong. I wish vou 
Petitor, which is utterl/inconsi t on? with thThi h , S*^' ^ <!w "" "1"'" b ? « ' - - 
••sovere.gn States." Sovereignty is upremacv Th^iST"* *- ' refer *° the phrase 
which is sovereign governs and controls alwh ; , ''' Js sov ereign is supreme- that 

t»ti».i of that Nation known , ?£ t.f V ;; r r i,,n " lrlil '"' Tl, ,'„ , 

supreme law of our whole land, and is now it^ s sunreme \tj» ?!, , """' J ' mmi into effe <*> the 
American people on the battle-field to dL is wl 1 , III 7!'' ""•' ^ eal issue testi «g by the 
as the supreme law of the land, or whether it Ihall be w ^f^™ shall be mafntained 
Constitution be recognized as the JZm!i 'Tu trampled under foot, and each State 

supreme law of that country or wli.-tl.,..- il. r * country and a Constitution which is the 
^ the supreme I aw of the^a ndTs to b ml n ' Tr "'' ft l ' m "" 1 States is Wto words 
ions o. thirty-five "Sovereign States" ," The fl £S ta ^ called ^e Constitul 

^-t,:;: n'-Ztr^^i::: !--;;- -;:; ] -^ - ^o..:* ;^ h ;L:.rvn:. i ,v. l i.-v .:^ 1 :: -^ l ;; i i f ;-^uvA t ;-^ 

-| 5 S cS SSr^e&t 1 ^!^^^^ — - f »* "thai the onH- 

eglbly as type or the human hand e n wdt c i i, ', ***** 77"'" T - because " «■ -rule,, 

Now, my fellow-citizens, as mv comrSSnJ i Ian S«age oi the Constitution. 
Witution i 8 the supreme kw of th TS w d \ ""'T' and as J™ a « agree, thai the 
he inauguration of JameTBulanan^ itatS^V^ 1 " the 6Xteni of tha1 '^? On 
ones. Among the States were Aonth c2 in S, ^a?^ °'" Cl ' rt!,in States ; ""' *«£ 
•londa. and IVxas. Amon- the Sta es wnrl ' ? e , 0r S la ' Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana 

Iissour i North Carohna, Tennessee Clt t^T"' DelaWare > Kentuck 7 Mary and' 
hese States and that r>i<t,; + ■ • M, r lnia : and there was the District nf c i n , i 

-ies, made the ^toffS^Z^ ^ ft k Nort hern States li,',, ' i , '., . ' "rf 
nnistration of James Bur la ,,, ti, ( °" stltutl0n was the supreme law. Sel durin™ the 13 
upremacy over all the S a e S I h 'av 1? Ta ™ rSfW " ,a ' 1 " "' , • ,,,, tha( « ''« m 

— try. On the eighth oTpebWv 1861 and t" ^^ °'' ° olumbia - the capital ofthe 

— - - become President^ "eVurtVoT^ 



Constitution of the United States, a Confederacy, consisting- of South Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and 'Texas, was organized in the city of Mont- 
gomery, in the Slate of Alabama; under articles known as the Constitution of the Confede- 
rate States of America, and on the next day these who had organized ii proce< ded to elect 
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President of that Confederacy, and A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, 
Vice-President. My distinguished friend has put a list of questions to me, which I shall 
answer as I proceed. But 1 have to ask him to point me to the clause in the Constitution 
which authorizes the amendment which proposes thus to restrict its supremacy to less than 
half our country. Where in the scope of that instrument — by which one of its articles — by 
what clause of that article — were those men authorized so to amend our Constitution that it 
should not cover any one of the eight Stall's embraced in the Confederacy? But again in a 
few days there appeared in council with the men who organized that Confederacy represent- 
atives from Arkansas. Kentucky. Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, and 
they proposed to so further amend the supreme law of our country, that it should be no law 
at all over nearly a million of square miles of that country ; and 1 again ask the gentlemen to 
point me under his two first propositions, to the provision of the Constitution under which 
those important amendments were made. 

Whose country was it that these felonious conspirators undertook thus summarily to dis- 
pose of? Our ancestors acquired part of it by the right of settlement. They came pilgrims 
to an inhospitable coast. They made their homes among the savage Indians. They endured 
the tempest-tossing of the Atlantic in the little barks, called ships at that day. and they dotted 
the hard and rock-bound coast of that ocean from Plymouth Rock to Oglethorpe's community 
in Georgia. They and their posterity, and others like themselves, escaping from the despot- 
ism- of Europe, from poverty and want, came and settled this country. In the course of 
years they reduced the wilderness, they built the village, the town, the city; they reared the 
school-house, the church, the college ; they made roads into the wilderness and followed them 
by settlements. They extended their boundaries and became a great people. When the 
mother-country undertook to control them improperly, they went to war in vindication of 
their rights, and during eight long years they sanctified that country to us by pouring out 
their taxes, their blood, their lives, alike upon the hills of hated New England and the plains 
of pestilent South Carolina. The sons of New England died everywhere in that war; and 
here on the soil of our own great State the men of the South and of New England fought 
together upon common territory belonging specially to neither. After eighl years of war, 
and taxes, and death, liberty was achieved, and a Constitution framed, deliberately framed, 
in our own city; it was submitted to the people of the States, and one alter another of those 
States adopted it ; the Southern States, at least Georgia and South ( Jarolina, coming in among 
the latest. It was, however, adopted by the people of all the States, and from that day it 

remained the supreme law of those States and all the territory belonging to them, and all the 
territory they might acquire. Subsequently to that, it was found that Spain held a province 
that might be dangerous to our peace. The American people — not the people of the Southern 
States— still less the people of that province or of the adjoining States alone, but the Ameri- 
can people, acting by the United States Government, with money paid out of the common 
treasure, bought Florida from Spain. The Emperor Napoleon held another territory, that 
which in part bounded the Gulf, and held the key to the great arterial river of our 
country, the Mississippi. While a foreign nation held the mouth of that river, the resources 
of the Northwest might at any time be crippled. That river was the outlet to the sea 
for the great and rapidly expanding Northwest. Through that river and over the Gulf of 
Mexico the products of the .Mississippi valley and of the Northwest were to find their way 
in market ; and over that river the articles imported into that extended region were to come; 
for in those days the railroad system was unknown. Thus, unless the United States pos- 
sessed the full control of the outlel to the Mississippi the great Northwesl might be shut 
out from the commercial world. Its produce could not he waggoned thousands of miles and 
the Alleghany Mountains to tin- sea coast. Therefore the United States Government 
boughl Louisiana from France as i1 seventeen years afterward bought Florida from Spain — 
the people of New England, Pennsylvania, New York, and every other Northern State 
paying their proportion for the purchase as well as those of South Carolina and Virginia. It 
was. vim perceive, our property, my fellow-citizens, that those conspirators thus attempted to 
transfer t!> a foreign government. We, or our ancestors, bought it, our government being 
the agent in the purchase. 

Again: there lay contiguous to Louisiana an empire equal to six of the largest States of 
the Union. It bounded the gulf whose freedom is so essential to the development of our 
country from the Sabine to the Del Norte. It hail been wrested from a neighboring govern- 
ment, Mexico, by our own people, who had gone there and settled, and had come to be known 
as the State of'fexas. We admitted that Slate into the Union, and that act led to war with 
M i ;ico. So that, though we had paid for it in money, by the assumption and extinguishment 
of its enormous debt, we paid for it again in the blood of our sons and brothers, shed on the 
fields of Mexico. The expenses of t lie Mexican war in blood and treasure were but part of 
the [nice the people of the Nation paid for Texas. 



Whether the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of those State* 
question to be settled by our armies or by us a1 the coming election. If it is not, why is it 
not '. 11 it is not, when and how did il cease to be? ' 

Wha1 provision does the Constitution make for its own amendment? It provides thai Con 

- T, 'r 1 , ";'- v - ''■•' a^o-third vote of each Bouse, propose any , ndmenl which shall b 

nutted to the States, and when the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States .hall have 
adopted it, or when conventions of those States, having been called fur that purpose, shall to 
the number of three-fourths ol the whole aumber of States, have adopted it, then and then 
only the amendment shal become part of the Constitution. I do net think that I have slept 
as lone as old Rip v an \\ ,nkle did, an,! therefore 1 do nut believe thai the Constitution Ins 
been so amended as to relieve the so-called Confederate States from its supreme iuSction 
I certainly have neve, heard that Congress, by a two-thirds vote, proposed an^mendment 
R?vers Constitution to the north side of the Susquehanna and Ohio 

I do not remember that such an amendmenl to the Constitution was ever submitted to the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania and adopted by it. If] have slepl through so importanl an 
of our history 1 pray some of von to .ell me so . Does any man here knew of the Constitutfon 
havingbeen so amended as to allow all .a:. States south of Pennsylvania, Ohio, hnlian a 11 
nois, and own. to pass from under it? If do man here knows it, and if ,. Sshed 

an agonist canno Melius when ,, bappe 1. I take il for granted thai i, neverlappened and 

that the Constitution ol the I mted States is still the supreme law of our whole country 
and that when lame, Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln, in the same phraseology before the 
same God and people, swore to " preserve, protect, and defend- it. they bound themselves 
by oath to maintain its supremacy over every acre of our country. Am I wrong? I think nol 
iJ to m f gre? ? + W, ;", M ; " ,SU ;"'' e T ery meta Physical question which my friend might 
put to me I agreed to meet him and to discuss the principles and measures of our parties 
respectively, and apply those principles to the great issues of the day; hut 1 think thai 
demonstrate that our party is standi.,- by the Constitution, the unity, and the the- of the 
country .and hat the party which he represents has deliberately a ented to tie. disLmber! 
men I the country I shall effectually answer all his questions. Each one. however, shall 
receive attention as the discussion progresses. 

n Jl!i!:! ,l " reW: ' S « Democratic Administration presiding over the country. The dream of 
a Southern empire influenced leading minds of the South at that time. For, gentlemen this 
rebehon the conspiracy which is now attempting to dismember ear country and overt?™ itl 

I hi la rrTl- K ' :,,U '" t : , i n ° f tW ° S enera tions. It engrossed the besl years of 
th. latei hie ol John 0. ( alhoun and his compeers in South Carolina, and seme other of the 
^ Ut ^ mS ; ates - n1832 South Carolina determined to show that the State was .'"sovereign," 
and passed an ordinance by which^ she undertook to nullify and se1 at naughl within her 
limits a law ol Congress known as a Revenue Law. She assembled what she called a 
reign convent ion," and that convention passed an ordinance of nullification. Word was 

MtMl1 V' 1 "' II "'" Dem °cratic President, Andrew Jackson, that the ordinance of nullifica 
bon had been passed. What did that distinguished Democrat do? Did h "send into Cot 
S ress a messa ? e f^g tha1 he had Q0 vi * ht '0 coerce a State? Did he send into Congress a 
message saying thai the Constitution of the United States was no1 ample for own So 

ion ? dame. Buchanan did thus al a later day, hut Andrew Jackson did quite otherwise lie 

;■;;;■;; l^r^V "r ' pl ' e ofthe stat , e - "■»"»*„* n,,,,, of ««*? Z} Z ,.y,,„ . 

en 1 7," 1 ' " ,, ; ,l V 1, «'» ,,l ^^\ ! ' ,l ''^»'"«l»'i'-'-''»»trya.i,lils,v.so„ 1 v..: showing how 
Heaven had enriched it ; pointing them to the magnificenl growth ofthe countrv under 

«!ct^T UlU r\ , l ll, ^' 1h, • ,l, that the People had elected him President and 7tZ on 
the inauguration day he had sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and 

^tl»uVV ht ' [ T< 1 ^-^ I* tha/oath should he ^rfed^onetiSiSon 
tibienueu, and the laws enforced. 

General Wmfield Scott was then thirty-two years younger than he is now; and President 
Jackson ordered, him to the ,,h ol Charleston with the army of the United States Be 

, M , o^ered the Secretary of the Navy to disengage all the available vessels, and lay them 
£ on fi££. co ?^ 1° th^ if South Carolina should undertake to put its foot on th ,i, 

. d K ° i 7 ' soverei f b ™n S V'" : , Tha< is What Andrew Jackson did, when the 
people ol houth Carolina undertook to show their "sovereignty" by merely tramline on a 

rihcr ;::,! 7; 1 " " by ,,:m f ^ r <^^ — fragnfente, epVp™t££X ^ g ount r ; 

!:;;: ;:„;.;:;;:;;. ?:?^zzZT eiVen proposing t0 refuud us the »»*> we have e *p ended 

Let us briefly contemplate some of the results of their action 

Ihe Constitution of the United States provides that -the citizens of each State shall ho 
led to all he privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." 1 am a PhiladeL 

; f T 'T h ZV S, ' 1 ;°" 1 ;" 1 he T> ' learnedm y 1™de here. A, I approached manh 1 

" ' ' ( - I"?;' !"ni " j^^of one year] was, under the Constitution of the I „ 
btates, a citizen oi Massachusetts, and as such took part in the Presidential election Yea 



my fellow-citizen, were, perhaps, born in New England, or in a Southern State, nnd under the 
Constitution of the United States are a citizen of Pennsylvania, and at the coming election 
may vole as a citizen. We all have the right, under the Constitution, to become citizens of 
Maryland or Virginia — ay, even of South Carolina., if il In' to our taste. 

The ( 'oust il nl inn. as we have seen, gives each and every one of us that is a citizen of any 
Stale the privileges and immunities of citizenship in Texas, and in every State lying between 
her and Pennsylvania. Our money and our blood bought three of them: and as you know 
our money has built fortifications and arsenals and custom-houses and post-offices and marine 
hospitals, and all other national establishments throughout those States. Will my distin- 
guished competitor, I again ask. tell us when and where and how the Constitution, in accord- 
ance with its own provisions, was so modified that we are no longer entitled to citizenship in 
those Slates, and that the custom-houses, and forts, and arsenals, &c, that we paid for. belong 
to a foreign people and government? Is South Carolina part of our country ? Abraham 
Lincoln thinks it is, and so do you. Have you never heard of the healthful qualities of the 
climate of Florida? You have a side daughter — a fair girl sinking into the consumption; 
the disease is developing in her tender system ; the doctors order her to a more genial climate. 
You say that you will take her to Florida, where the temperature seldom varies ten degrees, 
and where, it is said, the atmosphere is an almost sovereign balm for incipient, consumption. It 
is your right to take her there; and I leave it to my distinguished competitor to show by what 
clause of the Constitution Jefferson Davis and his armies deny you the exercise of that right. 

You, young mechanic, who have no capital but your skill and health — who are tired of 
labor in the contracted workshop and of life in the compact city, dream of owning a herd of 
cattle upon a broad prairie. Under the Constitution of the United States and the beneficent 
legislation of the first "Lincoln Congress" you have a right to go to Texas, or any other 
State in which there are public lands, and, under the Homestead law, settle on one hundred 
and twenty acres, if you have a wife, or if you are a single man, on eighty acres of the best 
land you can find. If you have children, the law gives you one hundred and twenty acres for 
yourself and wife, and ten for each of your children. That land in Texas or any other Stale 
is yours; all you have to do is to go and settle upon it. Ay, say you. "but Jefferson Davis 
won't let me!" That is so; and my patriotic competitor says that President Lincoln is vio- 
lating the Constitution by trying to drive Jeff's soldiers out of your way, that you may go and 
"walk in glory behind the plough" on your own broad acres. 

Where is the power, my laboring friend, to divest your personal interest in the public lands 
under the Homestead Law? Where is the power to rob us. American citizens, of the glory 
our ancestors achieved on Eutaw's field and Camden's plain? Where is the power to rob us 
of the treasure we invested when we acquired Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, and involved 
ourselves in the Mexican war? 

" Ah ! but," says my friend. " this is.your doings, you Abolitionists and Republicans." Let 
us see how that is. 1 ask you. my Democratic townsmen' who was President on the eighth of 
February, 18(51, when the Southern Confederacy was organized? Who was Presidenl on the 
twenty-first of December, D^r, when South Carolina seceded? Was not .lames Buchanan? 
Had he not for his Cabiuc^iowell Cobb, of Georgia, and John B. Floyd, of Virginia, and 
Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, and Jacob Thomp- 
son, of Mississippi, and were not they and their associates all Democrats? Was not what 
they did the doings of the Democratic party? And did not the party turn out of its ranks 
every man who did not stand up for and sanction what the Buchanan administration did? 

On the 21st of December, L860, South Carolina passed her ordinance of secession; but she 
did not do it until James Buchanan, President of the United States, and the acknowledged 
head of the Democratic parly, had announced to the Southern people his belief in their right 
l.i secede, and had told every loyal. Union-loving man in the Southern States that, in the event 
of his State's seceding, if he dared to hold on to the Union, he must expect no protection 
from the National Government, but would be handed over to the tender mercies of his 
State or any confederacy that tnighl be built upon the ruins of our Union: and in order to 
strengthen this warning, had coupled with his message the opinion of his Attorney-General, 
Jeremiah S. Black, sustaining it. That message was sent to Congress three months before 
Abraham Lincoln became Presidenl of the United States. 

James Buchanan and the Democratic party so understood the Constitution. I do not blame 
them. I do not blame the Millerito for his faith, though he does not go up at the expected 
time, but still believes that he will go up some time. I do not blame the Mormon, if he is 
honest in his faith, though I censure his practices. I do not blame these leaders ofthe Demo- 
cratic party fir their faith: they honestly believe that the Constitution of the United Stales 
is a rope of sand, and that whenever a State wants to go out of the Union, she can. That 
is their faith; they have a righl to it ; but 1 am not willing to let them dissolve the Union 
to gratify their vagaries. What 1 complain of IS, that while holding to these baleful 
tenets, they humbug masses of their party by uttering delusive phrases about maintaining 
and defending the Union and the Constitution. If the leaders of the Northern Democracy 
had not believed the doctrines announced by Mr. Buchanan, they would have abandoned him 
and his Administration when he sent in his message of the 4th of December, 1860; but, on 



the contrary, those members of the party who dissented from Ids new-found faith were kicked 
out — Forney, and others aide and brilliant as he, among the number. 

Let me demonstrate the truth of ray assertion by reading from the message of James 1 * u - 
chanan, communicated to Congress on the 4th of December, I860: — 

"The question, fairly stated, is: Has the Constitution delegated to Congress the power to 
coerce into submission a State which is attempting to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn, 
from the Confederacy? If answered in the affirmative, it must lie on the principle that the 
power has been conferred upon Congress to declare and make war against a State. After 
much serious reflection, I have arrived at the conclusion that no such power lias been dele- 
gated to Congress, or to any other department of the Federal Government. It is manifest, 
upon an inspection of the Constitution, that this is not among the specific and enumerated 
powers granted to Congress; and it is equally apparent that its exercise is not necessarj and 
proper for carrying into execution any one of these powers." 

Now. that either was or was not the doctrine of the Democratic party as an organization. 
Let us test it. Is not James Buchanan in full faith and communion with the Democratic party 
to-day? Does he not support the Chicago platform and nominees? And have not the party 
expelled from its ranks every man who dissented from the doctrines and measures of Buchanan 
and his Administration? 

Accompanying that message of James Buchanan was the opinion of Judge Black, his 
Attorney-General, in which that eminent friend of Pendleton and McClellan said: '-If it he 
true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of general hostilities carried on by the central 
Government against a State, then it seems to follow thai an attempt to do so would lie ipso 
facto an expulsion of such State from the Union. Being treated as an alien and an enemy, 
she would be compelled to act accordingly. And if Congress shall break up the pi 
Union by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity and armed hostility between different 
sections of the country, instead of the 'domestic tranquillity' which the Constitution was 
meant to insure, will not all the States be absolved from their Federal obligations? Is any 
portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest 
like that?" 

Now, I say that James Buchanan and Jeremiah S. Black, and the Democratic party of the 
North, that sustained them, in the promulgation and support of the message ami opinion from 
which 1 make these extracts, served notice on the Union men of Virginia, and Tennessee, and 
Missouri, and all the Southern States, to this effect: "If the majority of the people of your 
respective Stales want to secede, we will let them; and if you resist them and try to keep 
the State in the Union, you do so at your peril, for there is no power in the Constitution to 
prevent secession, or under which we can or will protect you." My Democratic friends, is 
not that true? Did they not thus invite the dismemberment of your country? Did they not 
impel and encourage the Southern conspirators to rob you of more than half of your national 
birthrighl '.' 

Is the Constitution the supreme law? Did Gen. Jackson understand the doctrines of the 
Democratic party when he said, ''The Union must and shall be preserved"? If he did, 
Abraham Lincoln is bound to preserve the Union, and every honest Democrat should sustain 
him in the effort, for every inch of that Union is our country, and over all the Constitution 
which he has sworn to maintain and defend is the supreme law. The truth is. my fellow- 
citizens, that since 1847 the Democratic party has abandoned its old faith. I belonged to 
that party. I grew to manhood in it. and devoted the best years of my life to its interests, 
and on the very day when I ran as an independent candidate I'm' Judge I voted for William 
Bigler and the whole Democratic ticket except that for the judiciary. In 1852 I worked and 
voted for the election of Fierce and King. It was not till I discovered that the doctrine of 
Calhoun, which Jackson supposed he had crushed, had trot control of the party, that 1 aban- 
doned it and went forth to resist its great power tor evil. 

1 have, however, only shown you what the doctrines of that party were. Now lei me show 
you the practical effects of those doctrines, how. by withholding the support of the Govern- 
ment from the Union people of the South, the Democratic party forced the contemplated 
separation of our country. When the eight States met to organize a Confederate Govern- 
ment, they represented 2.656,948 white people, and 2,312,046 slaves. The Southern States 
that did not go with them at that time contained 5,633,005 white people and 1,638,297 slaves. 
So that of the people, who composed that Confederacy, black and white, bond ami free, there 
were 4,968,994, while of those who then refused to go into it there were 7,271,302. And 
had James Buchanan and the Democratic party adhered to the old Jacksonian Democratic 
doctrine, and announced that the Union must he preserved, that the Constitution was the 
supreme law of the land — had President Buchanan ordered General Scott, old as he was. to 
concentrate the army in the North, and to reinforce Sumter and all other forts on the Southern 
coast, and ordered the Secretary of the Navy to concentrate the Navy on our coast — said to 
the Union men of the South, as Jackson did in his proclamation, stand true to your country, 
its Constitution and its flag, and we will sustain you. no State would have seceded— no foreign 
( lonfederacy would have been reared upon our soil — no war would have deluged it with blood. 
That was the time to prevent war. This was the way to prevent it. But the new faith of 



these new leaders of the party would not permit them toad thus. Wha1 did they do? South 
Carolina, us I have said, seceded on the '21st of December, I860. When the news was earned 
to Mr. Buchanan, did he, as old Jackson did, straighten himself up, point to the heavens, and 
swear by the Eternal that the Union should be preserved ? No; take up the files of your 
Democratic newspapers and read. and. you will find that he sat in the executive chamber like 
an old woman crying. Every day the telegraph brought us intelligence of the new floods of 
tears that the Democratic president was shedding. He assumed the attitude and aspect of 
a dejected old woman, and cried: "Oh, dear me ! you ought not to do it ; but oh. dear me ! 
I have not the power to prevent or to punish you." So the work of the attempt to sever 
the grandest country God ever gave to man, and to abolish that miracle of modern civiliza- 
tion, the Constitution of the United State-, went on. 

But more than this, that Democratic Administration, with the sanction of the party that 
brought it into power and sustains the Chicago platform and nominees, armed the rebels and 
gave them a navy. John B. Floyd, of Virginia, was Secretary id' War, and had charge of 
our arsenals and our armories. He sent into the seceding States from every Northern 
arsenal and armory every available gun. pistol, cannon, sword, or set of uniform. Don't you 
remember, my friends, that the last heavy guns thai were being shipped were stopped by the 
patriotic citizens of Pittsburg, among them the venerable Judge Wilkins — that distinguished 
Democrat, whose career in the United States Semite still reflects lustre upon our State— that 
distinguished statesman, now tottering toward the grave, presided over the meetings of citizens 
that stopped those cannon. They were law-abiding citizens of Pennsylvania, and they tele- 
graphed to the President, sayiDg that they had arrested certain heavy guns, in transitu. 
because they believed they were being sent to a Confederacy that was being established upon 
our own soil in violation of our Constitution, and they were determined that those guns 
should not go for any such purpose. What did Messrs. Buchanan and Floyd, speaking for 
the Democratic administration, reply? They replied that the guns in question were on their 
under the orders of the Secretary of War, to a new fortification on Ship Island. Now. 
let me ask whether there is a soldier here who has been to Ship Island? If there is. I wish 
him to say so, for I want him to make a brief part of my speech. There is no fortification 
on Ship Island ; there was no fortification on Ship Island; there was no contract for a forti- 
fication on Ship Island; there had never been an order issued to build a fortification on Ship 
Island. The story was a lie. It was one of the nefarious practices by which the people of 
the eighteen States of the North were stripped of arms and the rebels of the South furnished 
with tic means to overawe and intimidate the Union men of the Southern and Border States, 
and ultimately make war on us. 

What did your Secretary of the Navy do — your Democratic Secretary of the Navy? He 
is a Northern man; he is a son oi d New England — the "land of Abolitionists!" 

And here, by the way. 1 must make a brief digression ; I must, as a Pennsylvanian. pro 
against my friend robbing Pennsylvania of the brightest jewel in her coronet and throwing it 
at the feet of New England. 

The doctrine of man's absolute right to wages for work did not spring from New England ; 
1 claim it as a great Pennsylvania truth. AVhile yet the Revolutionary war was pending — 
on the 1st -if March, 1780, three years before the declaration of peace — the Legislature oi' 
Pennsylvania passed an act by which slavery was "extinguished and forever abolished" 
within the limits of the Commonwealth. It was done in grateful recognition of God's good- 
ness in securing the near prospect of speedy freedom to all the people of that State. And 
in the literature of America, there is no prouder oi' grander chapter than the preamble to 
t'n.,; law which secures to every laboring man. woman, and child within the limits of our own 
den- Pennsylvania, wages lor their work— which secures to all the people of the State the 
rite of marriage, and raised from their degradation, thousands of women who were com- 
pelled to live in prostitution thai their wealthy owners might, sell their children like sheep at 
the shambles. To Pennsylvania, our own State, sir. belongs the honor of establishing, by 
special law. human freedom, and the right of the laboring man to his wages; and 1 wiil 
not. without an earnest protest, allow any man to deprive my ancestors of their share in so 

an honor. Bui to resume; What did your Secretary of the Navy — a son id' des] 
New- England — do? Our navy consisted of 69 vessels, manned by 7000 men, exclusive of 
i and marines. It carried 250 guns of different calibre. What did your Secretary of 
the Navy do with them— vessels, men. guns and all'.' Knowing that a foreign government 
organizing within the limits of our country; knowing that John B. Floyd avowed his 
allegiance to it and had armed it ; knowing that he had handed over your army to it as pris- 
oners (for under Twiggs he surrendered one half, and under Canby he compelled the surrender 
of nearlj the other half, so thai before Abraham Lincoln became President, the Confed 

had some eight, ten, or twelve thousand prisoners, whom they paroled) what. I ask. under these 
circumstances, did this Democratic Secretary of the Navy do to maintain the Constitution 
and unity id' our country'.'' Did he -end the largest vessels of the navy into the Delaware or 
the Hudson, or to Charlestown, Mass., or to Littery and Portsmouth, upon the confix 
the two State- nf Maine and New Hampshire? Oh. no. my fellow citizens: he was iu the 
conspiracy to divide and dishonor your country. He was of the cabinet that agreed to James 



Buchanan's message of December, 1860, announcing to the Union men of the South that the 
government would aot proted them. Under his direction, the twenty seven largesl vessels of 
our navy were dismantled or laid up in ordinary in Southern yards, within the limits of the 
proposed ( lonfederacy. Thus did James Buchanan and his Democratic cabinet, their conduct 
being approved by the Democratic party, hand over our patrimony and the means of defend- 
ing it. to avowed conspirators who were forming a foreign government on our soil. Bu1 what 
did the Democratic Secretary of the Navy do with the rest of our vessels? Did he send 
them into our Northern yards ? No ; he sent them to the coast of A frica ; to the far Pacific ; 
to the Mediterranean; to the Indian ocean; in a word, to the mosl distant stations to which 
armed vessels had ever borne the flag of our country : so that, when A braham Lincoln became 
President, he had at his immediate command in the yards of the North, bu1 the four smallest 
vessels of our navy, manned by 250 out of the 7,000 men. and carrying less than 25 out. of 
the more than li T> ( > onus. 

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land; but you must not 
enforce it. for fear you offend the people of the South ! That is tie- doctrine of the Peace 
Democracy. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land; but, 
but, hut. you must not enforce it. If you will only coax the men of the Southern Con- 
federacy abjectly enough, ihey will come back to the Union without this war! At least we 
think they will, and we are prettj sure they will, if you will go for the ■■ I nion as it was." 
without New England. General Jackson did not talk that way — he said : '"Tl □ titution 

is the supreme law of the laud: and if you attempt to trample upon it. I will blow you into 
eternity/' Jackson'3 is the Lincoln doctrine of to-day. We mean to maintain the supremacy 
of the Constitution; and when the war is over, if it. needs amendment, we will do whal 
Republican party proposed to do before this war began. My friend forgets that, to app 
these people whom the Democratic party v\' the North were hissing on to war whom the 
Democratic, party were arming and providing with a navy— we united in a resolution to 
amend the Constitution, so that by no future amendment could slavery ever possibly ho 
interfered with by the people of the North. That proposit ion passed both houses <<\' < longress, 
many Eepublieans in both houses voting for it. ft passed tic Senate by 24 to L2 and the 
House by L33 to 65, largely more than the requisite two-thirds vote, and by th 
support of the Republican party. 1 claim to belong to the Abolition section of the Repul - 
lican party. I do not believe that any man ha o good a rich! to a babe as the woman who 
carried it for nine months, and suffered th if maternity in giving it birth. 1 believe 

that every man. whether his father under the barbarous laws of the Soul hern States might sell 
him on the auction block or not, is entitled towages for all the work he does. I di 
believe that one man has a right to lie lord and master, ami hold other.- as his slaves. And 
I despise the' system under which a heartless and sensual aristocracy have been in the habit 
of selling their daughters into whoredom and their sons to lives of unrequited toil. Insofar. 
1 am what they call an abolitionized .Republican ; and many members of the wing of the 
party to which I belong, in tin 1 hope of securing peace, sustained the pi mendment, 

whereby the Constitution would have been peaceably amended, and if would have been made 
impossible through all time, for the people of theNorth to free a slave. 

My friend's third proposition is that " Whenever any department of Government exercises 
any power beyond or antagonistic to the Constitution, it is revoluti 

This is certainly novel, and rather startling doctrine. It comes from the modern sch 
Democrats. There used to be great discussions about the i Jonstitution bo i ween 1 lenry < 'lay and 
Daniel Webster on the one. hand, and certain Democrats of the Calhoun school on the other; 
and in those good old days, the theory was that if Congress or any administration should at 
any time adopt an unconstitutional measure, the people would rally in their might al the 
election and turn out of office those who had made the mistake or perpetrated the wrong; 
and that in the meantime those who thoughl the act unconstitutional and were injured by it 
should raise the question before the Supreme Court of the United States and have it, de< 
Now sir, what is the Supreme Court of the United State,- tor. and why have we elections re- 
curring at such short intervals if the object be not to guard againsl any enduring reason for 
rebellion or revolution? The object in limiting the Presidential term to four years and the 
Congressional to two was that, if anybody who mighl get into power should behave badly, we 
might have an early opportunity to turn him out. The Supreme Court was provided, so that 
if Congress should pass an unconstitutional law. and the President approve it. that tribunal 
might declare it unconstitutional an I .So the patriots who framed our ( Jonstitution 

vainly imagined that they had made a frame of Government under which rebellion and revolu- 
tion would be impossible. Not so, according to the doctrine of m_\ distinguished adversary. 
lie argues that whenever an unconstitutional law is passed.it is revolution, and anarchy 
follows, and war is the just consequence. If that be i N' si I doctrine, pray what is the use of 
the Supreme Court ? It has no place in his theory of our Government. My friend hi 
a string of questions to me. and he will allow me to put one to him: Aci i his theory, 

what is the use of the Supreme Court of the United States, and why have we provided for elec- 
tions at intervals, in no case greater than four year.- ? I say that the framers of the Constitution 
never dreamed that a doctrine such us that announced by him would be propounded by any 



party in the country. They gave the people frequent flections, an ample and beneficent 
judicial system, and provided methods by which the Constitution could be peaceably amended, 
and supposed that they had made the internal peace of the country enduring as its mountains. 
The thought of secession, rebellion or revolution never disturbed them. John 0. Calhoun, in 
Is IT. introduced it into the Senate of the Tinted States, embodied in certain resolutions, which 
Col. Benton moved at once to lay on the table. Calhoun looked at him with that calm eye of 
his. and said : " I am happy to hear from the gentleman ; 1 shall know where to find him." 
"Yes, sir," replied Old Bullion, "you may always know where to find me. You will always 
find me on the side of my country. I am glad you know it, sir." 

In 1848 the Democratic Convention assembled at Baltimore, and I went there to help make 
the nominee. I saw Wm. L. Yancey, Calhoun's ablest disciple, arise in that Convention and 
submit to its consideration Mr. Calhoun's dogma, which had been so promptly tallied at the 
previous session of the Senate. 1 saw the question brought to a vote in that grand Democratic 
Convention, which embraced delegates from every Southern State — South Carolina, Mississippi. 
Arkansas, Georgia, and all the resl ; yet among them all there were but 36 Southern men to 
vote for the doctrine which my friend propounds as the doctrine of the Democratic party 
to-cluy, to wit: that the Constitution of the United States contains the seeds of its own 
destruction ; and that any State that may believe an act to lie unconstitutional need not wait 
till the Supreme Court has passed upon the question, but may go out of the Union, and may 
rob you of your interests under the Homestead Law, and under the Constitution of the United 
States, which gives you citizenship in each and every State. 

The despised and rejected heresy of 1847-8 is the ruling doctrine of the Democratic party 
to-day, and when, in the Chicago Convention, they pledge themselves with " unswerving fidelity 
to the Union muh r the Constitution," they avow to all knowing men just that doctrine. They 
declare that "in the future, as in /In- past" (mark you, as in the past), "we will adhere with 
unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution, as the only solid foundation of our 
strength, security, and happiness as a people, and as a framework of government equally 
conducive to the welfare and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern." 
Now, we of the Administration party are for the Union unconditionally until this war lie 
terminated ; and then, if any man has violated the Constitution, we will take him before the 
courts of the land, and punish him. But while there is war-making upon us, our great object 
is to maintain our country; for it is no odds what the Constitution is, if we have no country 
for the Constitution to operate upon. Therefore, in order to have the benefit of the Consti- 
tution, we mean to maintain the integrity of the country, that our posterity, dwelling in that 
country, shall enjoy the benefit of the Constitution. 

I have shown you, fellow citizens, that James Buchanan, and John B. Floyd, and Howell 
Cobb, and Isaac Toucey, and Jeremiah S. Black talked about "the Union under the Consti- 
tution ;" they had sworn, all of them, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. I have 
read you Mr. Buchanan's reasoning as to what are the powers of the government under the 
Constitution. I have read you his attorney-general's opinion on that subject, and thus shown 
you that the phrase " the Union under the Constitution" means the Constitution as the Demo- 
cratic party understand it; that is, with the right of secession in it. Is it not so ? Do they 
mean "the Union under the Constitution," as Webster understood it, as Clay understood it, 
as Jackson and his cabinet understood it — the Union with vital power in the Constitution to 
defend the Constitution and maintain the Union? or do they mean "the Union under the 
Constitution" as it was understood by James Buchanan, and Howell Cobb, and Jeremiah S. 
Black, and John B. Floyd, and Isaac Toucey, and as it is understood by my competitor here, 
who has no fault to find with Mr. Buchanan's Administration? If they mean "the Union 
under the Constitution." as they understood it, why shall they make war now to maintain 
what they would not. make war to keep ? Why shall they not give to the rebels what they 
regard as their territory? Did they not give them arms to defend it? Did they not 
give them a navy to defend it ? Did they not surrender to them the United State- army, 
lest it mighl lie used to deprive them of that territory? Did they not strip you of arms, 
ammunition, soldiers, and ships ? Why will they not, then, adhere in the future to the same 
policy which they practised in L860, let the whole thing go, and declare that the Constitution 
is a rope of sand ? 

When my distinguished friend shall have answered my questions as to when the Constitu- 
tion was so amended that its powers were restricted to the territory lying north of .Maryland, 
"Virginia. Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, 1 will proceed to consider the questions he has 
done me the honor to propound to me. 






Speech of Hon. Wm. D. Kelley in the 

North ■op-Kelkij Debate, 

AT SPEING GARDEN INSTITUTE, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY D. WOLFE BROWN. 

Fellmo-Citkens— I hope you will preserve the same good order to-nighl thai character- 
zed your proceedings on Friday night. We are engaged in an important work In 
^JE^^&S^™** C - tit »-ies, -1 it defends upon you ,o Zt 

My | distinguished competitor opened Ids leading remarks by propounding five propositions 
and closed them by submitting seven interrogatories to me. In his closing femark I - . 1 
to complain that I had not answered all his propositions and interrogatories I .this he 
a little unjust. I am here by his invitation, and the invitation whirl, he addressed me 
tamed no one of those propositions or interrogatories 

It invited me to enable yon to judge between us with reference to our principles and their 
app '- i.». o the , , ueg of th day Had i( conta . ned the 1 • . I, 

tones I might have filed some cross-mterrogatories holme we brought the case to an 

1 shall however as the debate proceeds, reach all his propositions and tion For the 

present, I prefer to follow the line of argument with which I be ff an 

In ol !' tifp ni ng * demo f trated - « t™ 8 * satisfactorily to you, that the organization now 

known as the Democratic party has abandoned the faith of its fathers, has adopted the d ma 

of Calhoun, which was scouted rom the Senate by the Democratic party in 1847 and In, 
the Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1848, and that by abandoning he „ in ,1 ' ' 
Jefferson and Jackson and adopting thus,, of Calhoun and the fire-eatefs i\ has been led 
to become co-conspirator in organizing and arming the rebellion , fa we are now at 

' the T)r CeeC V n0W *? Sh r! h ^ Abniham LinC0lD aQd h " f "»ds stand wheTe ■ I, 

TtlilW :^" they S ] and where Jackson stood-where Dougla stood 
W ii nl ui , lo 7, l he cons / nted - !° gl0ve the maiIed hand of ^r, and pass his 

time in playing the peaceable game oi presidential politics. I mean to show that bv this 

d "otTthe VX?X hU i ,limi f 1 tbG 1^ t0 wWch »* ^' 1,h and ea4 manh od'wer 
Be i I V,i h r.'i n , ! r 7sht ih,,n.s, vc S to believe and teach the doctrines by which 

o fthen In wh« „n ? i "i f ,n ' a r U ' the d0Ct, ' in " S " n,K ' P eace men ofthe * ar ° f L812,and 
Spin t£ fields of Mexico? " ^ ^ WL ' Ut ' U> S ™ ^^ and ^'> ' ' soldiers 

of tlns"^!!;;;;'^'';!:!,! 1 ! lt t £"? g *? e administration of Mr. Buchanan a portion of the Si 
o mis union seceded, the Southern Confederacy was formed, the public oronertv in the 

and • i;;; s ;;?i •' the r ™^r :y r Uy se P arate states - : "" 1 "-> "' ■ SS Vw ig g 

saril^ from tt fZ t U w en + t ered A7 tha " 1 " 1 - '' T f J ^ S ™ lu ntarily, .hat under Canby a, 
Sportation Administration had withheld from it supplies, arms, and 

hanroVZ'h Wl1 to f . thefourth f March, 1861, when the Government passed out ofthe 

shino/s. f =ratic party, and Abraham Lincoln assumed the helm of the -rand old 

address STt a : the [ "' , " ,, T^ J pr °P 0Se t0 read , ">"" portions of his inaugural 
KSi^nSt 7 0U ™ ays r whe ? e ; h ^ a ^ rl y acce P tedthis ^r. or whether he strove. 

. ! JP;' 1 a ? ams1 he Government. My distinguished friend said, "let him 

H fcoiT) v Vi? at ; L ' r -, i,m • ".'.^ ™ rd f or if. we can have peace." If he ha, the word 

I n h i,i , n C ; , ' ! h ». rt may have some value; but I shall show you that 

livulus^rp,;™ CulU Called anarm 7 lfl to existence to quell the rebellion he prayed its 

a cnST. ri n enS v', Sa i d Abraham LincolQ i' 1 beginning his inaugural, - in compliance with 
a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address vou briefly, and to 

b the P si'w S3 V a ^P re ^' il - ll ^ ,1 ''' ( '^titution of t he.un,ed\s,a,e,,o'i,e taken 
by the President before he enters on the execution of Ids office 

do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration 
about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. 

sion of!! 1 '!!' 11 !!" S "Ti t0 ° XiSt am0DS the P e °P le 0f the Southern States that by the acces- 
sion ol a Republican. Administration, their property and their peace and personal security are 



to be endangered. There lias never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. In- 
deed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to 
their inspection. It is i'ound in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses 
you. I do bu1 quote from one of those speeches when 1 declare that,'] have no pur 

directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. 
1 believe I have no lawful right to do so. and I have no inclination so to do.' Those who 
nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar 
declarations, and had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed in the platform 
for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution 
which 1 now read : — ■ 

■• • Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the 
right of each State, to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of power on which the perfection and endur- 
ance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of 
the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of 
crimes.' 

•• 1 now reiterate these sentiments ; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention 
the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace and 
ity of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming Administration. 
1 add, too. that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the law 
be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States, when lawfully demanded, for whatever 
cause— as cheerfully to one section as to another." 

Passing' to another portion of this address, for I cannot devote my hour to reading the 
whole of it, Mr. Lincoln further said : — 

'• I, therefore, consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, 
and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins 
upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this, 1 
deem to lie only a simple duty on my part : and 1 shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless 
my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some 
authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but 
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain 
itself 

"In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence ; and there -shall be none, unless it be 
forced upon the National authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, 
and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties 
and imposts; but beyond what may be but necessary for these objects, there will lie no inva- 
sion, no using' of force against or among- the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United 
States, in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resi- 
dent citizens from holding' the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious 
strangers among' the people for that object; While the strict legal right may exist in the 
Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would lie so irritat- 
ing, and so nearly impracticable withal, that 1. deem it better to forego, for the time, the uses 
of such offices. 

"The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far 
as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most 
favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed, unless 
current events and experience shall .-how a modification or change to he proper, and in every 
case and exigencj my best discretion will be exercised according- to circumstances actually 
existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the 
restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections." 

L turn to still another brief passage. 

" My countrymen, one and all." said the incoming' President, "think calmly and well upon 
this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be losl by taking- time. If there lie an object to 
hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object 
will be frustrated by taking- time ; bat no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you 
a- are now dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and. on the sensitive point, 
the law- of your own framing' under it ; while the new administration will have no immediate 
power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you. who are dissatisfied, hold 
tin' right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intel- 
ligence, patriotism. Christianity, and a linn reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue 
of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being 
yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Govern- 
ment, while I .-hall have the most solemn one to - presen e, protect, and defend it.' " 

Before lie had called for a soldier, before he had the power to give an order with reference 
to a national \ e.-sel. did Abraham Lincoln, in the presence of the American people, and of the 
Cod of our beloved country, thus appeal to the people of the South to take time and let the 



"sdlicr second thought," which used in lie a Democratic doctrine, control them. Whal was the 
result? James Buchanan had announced to the loyal people of the South thai if they dared at- 
tempt to resist the secession of their respective States, he could not, and would not, aid them or 
take sides with them. His administration had armed the Southern army. TheCi ofederacy had 
been organized, had been officered, had received its army and navy from thai Administration; 
and its soldiers carried on their shoulders our muskets with which to pu1 us to death, if we 
should attempt to maintain the unity of the country, its constitution and its 1; Abra- 

ham Lincoln organized no war. The fourth of March passed, and the fifth, and each 
day of that month, and April began, and eleven clays of that month had passed when you 
shocked as 1 was (and 1 care not whether you be my partisans or tho f mj friend), when 
you felt that you had rather die than that the insult which had been put upon the flag of 
your country should not be wiped out in blood; when from fortifications constructed around 
Fort Sumter with James Buchanan's deliberate consent (for his Secretary of War could have 
ordered the commander of Port Sumter to destroy the working parties attempting to con 
those works) from fortifications constructed, I say. by the consenl of. lames Buchanan and the 
Democratic party, Fort Sumter and the flag of your country were fired upon, and a thousand 
hands and hearts engaged in the bloody work of storming seventy United States soldiers who 
defended the Bag of the United States over a United States fort; and when fire had d 
those poo,' men from the stronghold that your money had built, those brutal n : | upon 

them at the water's edge. The country sprang to arms and cried for an avenging war; and 
Abraham Lincoln, who had said to those people that the issue of civil war was with them and 
not with him, responded to the country's call, and appealed in i\n~ people for 75,000 men. 
They came at his call; they swelled to a' hundred, to two hundred, and to three hundred thou- 
sand; and he brought them to the frontier of the Confederacy, lie held them on the north 
bank of the Potomac and on the north bank- of the Ohio, until you and I grew impatient. 
He would not invade Virginia. He still hoped that reason and patriotism would bring the 
rebels back. But when they began to construct works from which they could shell the , 
of your country, as they had shelled Fort Sumter, he seat troops into Alexandria and . 
the northern borders of Virginia; and again you thrilled, 1 care not what your party may have 
been, when you heard that young Ellsworth had died for taking down the rebel flag from al 
a house within sight of the District of Columbia. 

This war is the rebels' war. The war maintained by the Presidenl is for our country and 
our posterity. It, was begun by the rebels; and it is maintained by the pa of -the 

country for the purpose of crushing rebellion and establishing the Constitution and the code 
of laws belonging to us, in their supremacy, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the 
northeastern point of Maine to the southern point of Texas. 

1 have said that the Democratic party, misled by the doctrines of John C. Calhoun, have 
been forced to occupy the position of Benedict Arnold. From that position they are spit- 
ting envenomed spite on the tomb of Andrew Jackson, and kicking the green turf from the 
new-made grave of Stephen A. Douglas. These things I shall prove to von. before we part 
to-night. 

_ Wha1 are their complaints? Let me cite them in substance from one of their most dis- 
tinguished orators and statesmen. I take them as they are made, point lie point, in a speech 
by Horatio Seymour : — 

1. " The freedom of speech and of the press has been denied us." 

2. "it is your property, the property of Northern tax-payers, which is confiscated." 

3. "Men have been torn from their families and locked up in prison, and women loo." 

4. "Men are told that they must leave their homes and devote themselves to wai 

5. "'I'he policy of the Administration has placed hindrances in the way of the Union," 
(i. -'The Administration has entered upon a settled policy, dangerous to the V 

country."' 

7. "in God's name, are there no means by which we can save the lives of husbands and 
brothers'.''" 

8. "We have nominated McClellan that we might restore prosperity -e to the 

people." 

Now let me read a proclamation written by Benedict Arnold, after he had deserted the 
flag of our country and gone over to Great Britain. You will find that he makes each one ol 
these points, just as though he had handed them to Horatio when the latter was ascending 
the platform to make his speech. On the 20th of October. 1780 ( just about the time when 
Pennsylvania was abolishing slavery), Benedict Arnold issued the following proclamation to 
the citizens and soldiers of the United States :— 

" You are promised liberty by the leaders of your affairs. But is there an individual in the 
enjoyment of it save your oppressors? Who among you dares to speak or write what he 
Thinks against the tyranny which has robbed you of your property, imprisoned v ur sons 
drags you to the field of battle, and is daily deluging your country with blood !" 

Does not this sound amazingly like a modern Democratic speech? But let me proceed 

" Your country once was happy, and had the proffered peace been embraced, the last two 
years ol misery had been spent in peace and plenty and repairing the desolation of the quarrel 



that would have set tin' interests of Great Britain and America in a true light, and cemented 
their friendship. 1 wish to lead a chosen band of Americans to the attainment of peace, lib- 
erty and safety— the first object in taking the field!" 

"You have changed the purpose of the war," says the modern Democrat; "it is no longer 
1'mi- the Union; it is for something else." Just so Benedict Arnold, to cover up his treason, 
said that we were no longer fighting the. Revolutionary war for peace, liberty and safety. 

••"What is Ann lira.'' continues Arnold, "but a land of widows and orphans and beggars ! 
But what need of argument to such as feel infinitely more misery than tongue can express.? 
i give my promise of most affectionate welcome to all who are disposed to join me in moa- 
sures necessary to close the scenes of our affliction, which must increase until we are satisfied 
with the liberality of the mother country, which still offers us protection, and exemption from 
ail taxes but such as we think fit to impose upon ourselves." 

This is not, I assure you, much as it sounds like it, a modern Democratic speech; it is a 
proclamation of Benedict Arnold, published in October, 1780. 

Now let me turn to the grave of Andrew Jackson. I was a Jackson boy, and I remember 
how, in my earliest childhood, I wept, when running back into my mother's entry, after the 
newspaper that had been thrown over my head by the carrier, I picked it up and found the 
hickory-tree at the head of its leading column turned upside-down, and black lines between 
the columns of the paper, and read that a coalition had defeated the election of my idol An- 
drew Jackson. That was in 1824. I never ceased to be a Jacksonian Democrat. I am such 
to-night; and from the time the leaders of the Democratic party accepted the doctrines of 
< 'alhoun and made war upon the memory and principles of Jackson, I swore that I would fight 
them in honor of his name and for the safety of my country. I go now to the grave of -lack- 
son to pluck a flowret from the chaplet which history weaves around his brow, and which will 
never fade. 

"You have suspended the habeas corpus," says my friend and antagonist, "and how can I 
bring suit when you have suspended the habeas corpus ?" Andrew Jackson suspended the 
habeas cm-pus, and imprisoned the judge that issued it ! And for that act. more than for any 
other in his life, the Democratic party made him President. These gentlemen who call Presi- 
dent Lincoln in one breath a "tyrant," and in another a "baboon" — and who denounce their 
own candidate for the Presidency when they speak of "Lincoln's hirelings and dogs" — also 
murmur about the freedom of the press. Let me presently read you a little from Parton's 
Jackson. 
It was a question in New Orleans whether peace had been concluded between England and 
America. In that day there were no telegraphs or railroads. Jackson had just beaten the 
British army, and there came rumors by ships that arrived at Mobile that a treaty of peace 
had been signed. .Jackson still maintained martial law in New Orleans, and the people who 
did not like the war resisted. You know how people of foreign birth have during this war 
been encouraged by democratic orators to go to the consular representative of their native land 
and claim exemption from military service. That game was practised in New Orleans while 
it was under the military rule of Jackson. The French residents were stimulated to apply 
to their consul for protection against his military authority. Some of the people demanded 
that, because there were rumors of peace. Jackson should relieve the city from martial law. 
Let us see what he did. 

Mr. Parton says : " .Mr. Livingston returned to New Orleans with the news of peace on the 
10th of February. The city was thrown into joyful excitement, and the troops expected an 
immediate release from their arduous toils. But they were doomed to disappointment. The 
package which Admiral Malcolm had received contained only a newspaper announcement of 
peace. There was little doubt of its truth, but the statements of a newspaper are as nothing 
I., the commanders of fleets and armies. To check the rising tide of feeling, Jackson, in the 
very day of Livingston's return, issued a proclamation, stating the exact nature of the intelli- 
. and exhorting' the troops to bear with patience the toils of the campaign a little lunger. 
• U' must mi/,' said he, l be thrown into false security by hopes that may be delusive, /i is by 
Holding out such, that an artful and insiiliims enemy too often seeks to accomplish what the 
iii in,, si exertions of his sir, ii,ji}\ will not enable him to <ffect. To place you oil' your guard 
and attack you by surprise, is the natural expedient of one who. having experienced the. 
superiority of your arms, still hopes to overcome you by stratagem.' 'Though young in the 
trade of war, it is not by such artifice that he will deceive us.' Jackson would not have liked 
an armistice. 1 suppose ! 

'•This proclamation seems rather to have inflamed than allayed the general discontent. 

Two days after the return of Livingston, a paragraph appeared in the Louisiana dfazette, to 
the ell'ert that a • flag had just arrived from Admiral t 'ochrane to General Jackson, officially 
announcing the conclusion of peace at Ghent, between the United States and Great Britain, 
and virtually requesting a suspension of arms.' For this statement there was not the least 
foundation in truth, and its effect at such a crisis was to inflame the prevailing excitement. 
Upon reading the paragraph. Jackson caused to be prepared an official contradiction, which 
lie sent by an aid de-camp to the offending editor, with a written order requiring its insertion 
in the next issue of the paper." 



There was a terrible hullabaloo raised by the Democrats of Philadelphia when Gen Schenck 
made the proprietors of the Evening Journal do just what Gen. Jackson made the editor 
of the Louisiana Gazette do — publish a little bulletin announcing that what he had said the 
day before was not true. 

"This was regarded by the discontented spirits as a new provocation. The " muzzled" edi- 
tor, in the same number of his paper, relieved his mind by the following comments upon the 
General's orders: " On Tuesday we published a small handbill containing such information 
as we had conceived correct, respecting the signing of preliminaries of peace between the 
American and British Commissioners at Ghent. We have since been informed from Head- 
quarters that the information therein contained is incorrect, and we have been ordered to 
publish the following to do away the evil thai might arise from our imprudence. 

"Every man may read for himself, and think for himself (thank God ! our thoughts are as 
yet unshackled !) but as we have been officially informed that New Orleans is a camp, our 
readers must not expect us to take the liberty of expressing our opinion as we might in a free 
city. We cannot submit to have a, censor of the press in our office, and as we are orderednot 
to publish any remarks without authority, we shall submit to be silent until we can .-peak 
with safety — except making our paper a sheet of shreds and patches — a mere advertiser for 
our mercantile friends." 

" Pretty loud growling," says the writer, " to come from a muzzled editor. - ' Why, it is not 
like a taint echo of the growls that you find in our "muzzled" papers. Take the New 
York Daily News, the organ of •• Phernandiwud," and see whether this is a whisper in 
comparison with the growls of that paper or the World. 

"In this posture of affairs," continues Mr. Parton, "some of the French troops hit upon 
an expedient to escape the domination of the general. They claimed the protection of the 
French consul, M. Toussand ; the consul, nothing loth, hoisted the French Bag over the con- 
sulate and dispensed certificates of French citizenship to all applicants." 

Just as a good many consuls during our present war have dispensed certificates of foreign 
citizenship to men who have been voting among us for years, and are used to hearing 
modern Democratic speeches inspired by Benedict Arnold's proclamation. 

"Naturalized Frenchmen availed themselves of the same artifice, and, for a few days. Tons 
sand had his hands lull of pleasant and profitable occupation. Jackson met this new difficulty 
by ordering the consul and all Frenchmen, who were not citizens of the United States, to 
leave New Orleans within three days, and not to return within one hundred and twenty 
miles of the city until the news of the ratification of the treaty of peace was officially pub- 
lished." 

■He was not going to have a nest of traitors, spies, and dealers in contraband merchandise 
and intelligence at his heels claiming foreign protection, and lie ordered them out of his lines and 
prohibited them from coming back. But let Parton tell the story : " The register of votes of 
the last election was resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining who were citizens and who 
were not. Every man who had voted was claimed by the General as his 'fellow-citizen and 
soldier; and compelled to do duty as such. 

"This bold stroke of authority aroused much indignation amongthe anti-martial lawparty, 
which, on the 3d of March, found voice in the public press. A. long article appeared anony- 
mously in one of the newspapers boldly, but temperately, and respectfully calling in question 
General Jackson's recent conduct, and' especially the banishment of the French from the city. 
Here was open defiance. Jackson accepted the issue with a promptness all his own. He 
sent an order to the editor of the Louisiana Courier, in which the article appeared, com- 
manding his immediate presence at headquarters. The name of the author of the communi- 
cation was demanded and given. It was .Mr. Louaillier. a member of the Legislature." 

"At noon on Sunday the 5th of March, two days after the publication of the article. Mr. 
Louaillier was walking along the levee, opposite one of the most frequented coffee-houses in 
the city, when a Captain Amelung, commanding a file of soldiers, tapped him on the shoulder 
and informed him that he was a prisoner. Louaillier, astonished and indignant, called the 
bystanders to witness that he was conveyed away against his will by armed men. A lawyer, 
P. L. Morel by name, who witnessed the arrest from the steps of the coffee-house, ran i 
spot, and was forthwith engaged by Louaillier to act as his legal adviser in this extremity. 
Louaillier was placed in confinement. Morel hastened to the residence of Judge Dominick 
A. Hall, Judge of the District Court of the United States, to whom he presented, in his client's 
name, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Judge granted the petition, and the writ 
was immediately served upon the General. Jackson instantly sent a file of troops to arrest 
the judge, and before night, Judge Hall and Mr. Louaillier were prisoners in the same apart- 
ment of the barracks." 

This was the same Andrew Jackson for whom the Democrats have all shouted. It is the 
same Andrew Jackson whose name to-day is attempted to be used as a shibboleth by men who 
are insulting and spitting upon his memory, and denouncing him as a tyrant and usurper. 

" So far from obeying the writ of habeas corpus, General Jackson seized the writ from the 
officer who served it, and retained it in his own possession, giving to the officer a certified 
copy of the same. Louaillier was at once placed upon his trial before a court-martial." 



Finally peace came and it found Lonaillier and the Judge still in prison. General Jackson 
then caused to be issued the following order:— w=ue«iiuacKson 

'Headquarters Seventh Military District, New Orleans, March 11th 1815— Sir- 
You will detail rorn your troop a discreel non-commissioned officer and four men. and direct 
Tl <''»•" call on he officer commanding the 3d United Slates Infantry for Dominick \ | 

J^ confined m the guard-honse for exciting mntiny and desertion within the encampS 

' I pon receipl of the prisoner, the non-commissioned officer will conduct him up the cast 
beyond the hues of Gen. I larroll's encampment, and deliver him the inclosed order aVdsei Inn 
V&eter V. (W, TH ° MAS HUTLER ' ^d-de-camp. 

' ( lommanding troop of cavalry, New Orleans.' 
"Inclosed with this order was a laconic epistle from the General to Judjre Hill • I have 

h T ht '"'T; 1 '- Sai p 1 r ' ; '" , ' n ' 1 - ■ '" Send y° u be y° nd the Um *s of my encampment to pre! 
1 '■'/petmun o the improper conduct with which von have been char" I You I ill 

1,1 "in ii un entisn snail have felt the Southern coast 

My honest Democratic friend, what do you say of your leaders who conceal facts of this 
kind ^from you, and are trying to tempt you to make war on your country, because the Govern 
men) has done what every patriot honors Jackson for doing what even- ,, , }. ev ,' 

commanded a greal army has done, and what the Constitution of the UnSd States express^ 
authorizes to i.e done when the emergency invites it expresslj 

Lei us now look a little further; for this matter does not end here. This act made Andrew 
PrtsdTnf'butThe slthern^ jt-OonstitutionaHt, would have made StVpten tv^Z 

>■ «. . bu the Southern rebels knew his devotion to the Union, and ran Breckinridge 
and Lane for the purpose „I preventing his election. I shall show you presently how ma? 
nificently Douglas, on the floor of Congress, defended tl,, actio,, of J ,ks a N w l ea f 

trictsatatafnS 
m t. sal again in his court; and again 1 refer to Parton For an account of what took olace 

Maior-GeS AntwSw ^ " WM "S^ ° rdered b >' the -u,, ttlu tl!! laid 
Jl , "V, ^ndiew Jackson show cause, on Friday next, the 24th March instant at ten 
ft A.M.. why attachment should not he awarded agains lun, fo,Mamten H o! 1 ^ : o, 
in having disrespectfully wrested from the clerk aforesaid an original order™? the honorable 

ame: also or disregarding the said writ of habea, rpus, when issued and served • i aV • 

,npnso,,d the honorable the .judge of this court ; Jj for other contempts as stateS by Z 

General Jackson had ceased to command an army; the country was at peace- and he did 

; ■. ;7; ;: z 'i;; hlr ; f u, - r \ e r ,K,w r ,,; McCle]lan - -» d ° »*£ ^ ™i ™S 

K B t Sftta.££„& S - HeWalked : '"" thC C0UF< r00m aS thG ~ns was served. 

i appeared in court attended bya prodigious concourse of excited people. 

.;',,''' ,z ''"' 'Undiscovered amidst the crowd,' Major Eaton re- 

houi« of h , ; ml • u '• \ heD r." " L ""' room iDSta ntly rang with the 

silence a pause ensue J £ it ""n ''""T '•"" "? be «ch, and moving his hand to procure 

t 't ,. pul i« ul es- • 1 ;'V'' l,U ' , - M ' ,llimb;, ' ll,, ' ,h '' , ' , ' , ' Wll ^'» l ' l1l ' ! ™'''-1^clu.vdue 

urged ' i , .'. ' ■""■', ""I'^Pnt'tv of theirs would be imputed to him and 

feeSsand^ 

e 4; " i ,V i w. " m, Hi Sll r c . e bemg restored - the j ud ^ e ^ *»« ^ *»*, ^ 

.a ■ h d m en' u n n i '""' '5% t0 J raQ « aCt busineSS a1 such ; ' momeQ t, and under 

ESS ^^^JrtfK^^ ta ^2^!^ 

-u/c unm' w ll'w ;T,I U that - 1US b T 6 hearl :, " ,1 Wiae head aow en S a ged in pre- 

du ml r ; ;i Sft WaT l 1 0Ver aS il wil1 be [D ;l f ew months, if Phil. Sheri- 

JeaclTnd everfcTtaTn.^ °' J " ^ h ™ ,1 "" , ' tat *>' P reserve Ulld defend ^ Hb,,- 

1 -Par'^'and m^w m. a^V 1 1' 1 ^f C ? Urt P roceeded to business. The district attorney 

I d n o, , " I • ■ SS '" QXneteen M'^.ions to be answered by the prisoner 

he wn f ,,! L "" :ll!l "' 1 ';, • "Jjdyon not arrest the judge of this court?' 'Did you not 

' These nteteenSS , ' ' "' ' ■" ' " ' "> y a Variet » v of ^respectful things" of the 

receive I , 1 1 ,"f! "?" ^ Gener&1 uU "^' refused to answer " to 1isten to ' 

• xphi i vl ,! : ° 1,; ' V" :l pap ^ r P revi0 « sl y presented by Ins counsel he had 

couia add nothing to that paper. ' Under these circumstances,' said he, ' I 



appear before you to receive the sentence of the court, having nothing further in my defem e 
to offer.' 

" Whereupon, Judge Hall pronounced the judgment of the court. It is recorded in the 
words following: 'On this day appeared in person Major-General Andrew Jackson, and being 
duly informed l>y the court thai an attachment had issued against him for the purpose of 
bringing him into court, and the district attorney having filed interrogatories, the court 
informed General Jackson that they would be tendered to him for the purpose of answering 
thereto. The said General Jackson refused to receive them, or to make any answer to the 
said interrogatories. Whereupon the court proceeded to pronounce judgment, which was 
thai Major-General Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars to the United Slates.' 

"Upon reaching his quarters, Jackson sent hack an aid-de-camp to the court-room, with. a 
check on one of the city bunks for a thousand dollars ; and thus the offended majesty of the 
law was supposed to be avenged." 

It does, in spite of all the suggestions of my competitor, seem thai courts are of some use. 
even in countries where the habeas corpus may be suspended in order to maintain the military 
power. While war continued, the military power was maintained. When the war ceased, the 
most popular and successful general of the war walked into court a prisoner, in the custody 
of the Deputy Marshal of the District. And while this war continues, with armed rebellion 
in the South, and hundreds of thousands of men in the North are aiding the rebels by dis- 
couraging enlistments, destroying confidence in the Government, and by every means in their 
power embarrassing military movements, the habeas ccrpus must a1 times be suspended, to 
maintain the Constitution, which provides for its suspension in just such limes. 

Now. my friends, begging the Democratic party no longer to desecrate the grave and memory 
of Jackson, imploring its leaders to lake their vile tongues off the fame of thai great chieftain 
of our country and of their party, I pass to the new-made grave of Stephen A. Douglas. 

In 1844, Charles J. Ingersoll, a Democratic representative in Congress from the city of 
Philadelphia, whose kinsmen and descendants still live among us, introduced a bill to refund 
the amount of that fine to Gen. Jackson. It had been paid in 1815; and during the first 
session of the Twenty-eighth Congress, in .January, 1844, Mr. Ingersoll, wishing to vindicate 
the Constitution and the people of the United States from the wrong that had been done 
them by Judge Hall, introduced a bill to refund the amount of that fine to Andrew Jackson. 
Among the ablest advocates of the bill was Stephen A. Douglas ; and on January 6, 18 1 1. he 
made a speech, from which I am about to read you some extracts, lie said: — 

"He was not one to admit that General Jackson violated the Constitution, or the law. at 
New Orleans. He denied that he violated either. He insisted that the General rightfully 
performed every act that his duly required, and that his right to declare martial law and 
enforce it resulted from the same source, and rested on the same principle, thai the gentleman 
from New York (.Mr. Barnard) asserted, from which Judge Hall derived the authority lo 
punish for contempt without trial, without witnesses, without jury, and without anything but 
his own arbitrary will. The gentleman asserted that the power to punish for contempt was 
not conferred by the statute, or by the common law. but was inherent in every judicial tribunal 
and legislative body; and he cited the authority of the Supreme Court to support the asser- 
tion, lie said that this power was necessary to the courts, to enable them to perform the 
duties which the laws intrusted to them, and arose from the necessity of the case." 

The modern peace men, who stand on Arnold's premises, tell you that there is no such thing 
as "necessity" -" military necessity.'' Now. here you have Judge Douglas arguing that the 
judge on the bench must issue the writ to punish for contempt, because the power to do so 
springs from necessity; otherwise he could not execute many of his orders. Mr. Douglas 
continues : — 

"It was from the same source that the -power to declare martial law was derived — its 
necessity in time of war for the defence of the country." 

Douglas believed in "military necessity;" so does every Democrat that has not yielded to 
Calhoun and become the pliant tool of the Southern rebels. Mrs. Nickleby said that Smike 
was "the most biddablest creature in the world." and after the Democratic parly yielded to 
the dictation of the Southern slave-drivers, it became just, about as biddable a creature as 
Smike: it did whatever the Southern Nieklebys told it to do. And thus ii has taken to 
denouncing all the doctrines held by the great founders and leaders of the party. Douglas's 
whole argument was to show the constitutionality of Jackson's conduct under the plea of 
military necessity. He continued :— 

"The defence of the lives and liberties of the people, as well as their property, being all 
intrusted to the discretion of the commanding general, it, became his dutj to declare martial 
law. if the necessity of the case required it. if it became necessary to blow up a fort, he was 
authorized to do it ; if it became necessary to sink a vessel, he was authorized to do ii. The 
n ■<■ issity of the case was the law to govern him ; and he. on his responsibility, must judge of 
the existence of that necessity. It was the first law of nature which authorized a man to 
defend his own person, and his wife and his children, at all hazards." 

1 n conclusion, let me ask if I have not shown that the Democratic peace party of to-day are 
on the grounds of Arnold, and vindicated, however humbly, the memories of Jackson and 
2 



Douglas against the aspersions cast upon them by the so-called but false Democratic leaders 
of our country. 

[Mr. Northrop followed in a speech of one hour and a half.] 
Judge KLelley was then again introduced and said: — 

A word or two, that there may lie no misunderstanding. I say to my friend that I mean 
to answer all his propositions and all his questions ; but he will pardon me if I charge him 
with a little want of candor, not intentional, but casual. I hold in my hand his challenge, and 
it reads thus : — 

"You and I have been nominated, by the respective political parties to which we belong, 
as candidates for Congress in the Fourth District of Pennsylvania. Of course we ask the 
support of the voters of the District on account of the principles which we severally represent. 
"In order, therefore, that the people of the District may judge between us in this respect, 
I propose to yon that- the citizens of both political parties should be called together, and 
that we should together address them." 

His seven questions I never heard until he had addressed yon ; and it would have been but 
frank, if he expected to bind me to them, that he should have given me some intimation of 
them, and he has no right to harp upon the fact that I do not do what I never agreed to do. 

But, my friends. I am now but laying the broad foundations of my side of this discussion. 
He will find that I will answer all his questions before he has done with me. Small credit I 
gel from him, however, for doing it; for he told you that, 1 had noticed but two of las propo- 
sitions, and when 1. as courteously as I could, suggested that 1 had dissented from the third, 
he said he had not heard me. Yet here in the Bulletin, as the gentlemen of the press have 
reported me. I find that 1 took it up and filled nearly a column in commenting upon it. Allow 
me to request that he will at least do me the honor to listen to what 1 may hereafter say in 
reply to him. 

And now. my friends, see " how plain a tale shall put him down. - ' Instead of dwelling 
upon the infamy of the war commenced and continued by the South, which has filled our 
ities with widows and with orphans, which has maimed I know not how many of you, as well 
as hundreds and thousands all over the land — which has fattened the soil of the country with 
the blood of American citizens, he turns and scolds like a very drab at New England, and 
tells you that Governor Andrew, before he would furnish the quota of Massachusetts, made 
stipulations. The rebels; for whom the gentleman has no unkind word, fired on Sumter on 
the kith of April ; on the 15th, your President called for troops ; and on the lsth the men of 
Massachusetts, from two hundred and fifty miles beyond here, marched through our city, 
taking hasty refreshment at the Girard House, and on the morning of the next day some of 
them were assassinated in the streets of Baltimore. But three days from the date of the 
President's proclamation, a regiment, gathered from the plains of Lexington, went through 
our streets, loyal men cheering them on, to die in Baltimore on behalf of our flag. 

The gentleman says that Judge Douglas died too soon to make a record on this question. 
Judge Douglas lived* long enough to pledge his support to the present Administration, and 
to announce that in a great war like this "there is room for but two parties — patriots and 
traitors." So he made his record ami then died. He does .fudge Douglas injustice who 
that, he died making no sign in the hour of his country's agony. 
My friend says that " Banks still retains a foothold in Louisiana." That is lucky ; he might 
have been driven to a gunboat. I have not heard that he has; nor have I heard that he lias 
even called for the Galena to be sent to that quarter of the country. Yes. he retains a foot- 
hold; and over that foothold, the proud Queen City of the Gulf, floa< the Stars and Stripes, 
one of those stars representing Pennsylvania and' six of them representing despised New 
England. 

Now, what answer has the gentleman made to my quotation from Mr. Buchanan's mes 
which was an official document — to my quotation from Attorney-General Black's opinion, 
which was sent in with that message, and to the fact that the Democratic partyplanted them- 
selves so firmly upon the doctrines of that message ami that opinion that they ostracized any 
man who dissented from the views therein expressed ? What answer has the gentleman made'.' 
Why, that New England lias been making mouths a1 the South ever since the government 
was organized, and that a lot of what he is pleased to denounce as fanatical preachers have 
Baid a.li sorts of queer and 'foolish things! The gentleman has not pointed you to an instance 
in which a New England State has organized an army to resisl the Government, tie has not 
pointed you to a single instance in which any New England State has built fortifications 
around any of the forts that protect their harbors, from which to assail them. He has not 
ted you to an instance in which a New England State has find upon your flag; and. oil 
•' lod ! is it not a shame that he should have forgotten that on every field on which a Pennsyl- 
vania soldier fighting in behalf of the country, lias been wounded or killed, his blood lias 
! . d with that of the bravesoiis of New England, who rushed promptly, as 1 have reminded 
you. to the defence of his country, the whole country, its constitution, and its flag the proudest 
of the. world. He can plagiarize from Fernando wood's speech what New England men are 
said to have said, but 1 can mention a fact which is probably not within the gentleman's 
knowledge, that when Mr. Wood sent to the clerk's desk in the House of Representatives the 



pamphlet from which are taken those alleged extracts from Phillips arid Garrison and others, 
the clerk, in reading, came upon pretended citations of the Language of members of the 
House then present, each of whom in turn arose in his seat and denounced the quotations 
attributed to him as fabrications, and challenged the man who was having them read to 
show when or where the Language imputed to him had been uttered. Rufus Spalding, of 
Ohio, whom the gentleman professed to quote, was specially severe on Mr. Wood for having 
an oft-refuted lie republished. And Mr Wood uttered apologetic words on the floor of the 
House. Yet he seems to have permitted the alleged quotation to go ou1 in his printed speech. 
Mr. Northrop. — I never saw that speech. 

Judge Kelley. — You happened to hit upon the same ([notations thai Fernando made. 
Mr. Northrop. — That may be. 

Judge Kelley. — And they were thus denounced one after another. 

My friend says that Arnold was a New Englander ; audi told you the other nighl that 
Isaac Toucey, who handed over the better part of your navy to the rebels, was a New Eng- 
lander. So I put the one against the other. They each tried with all (heir abilitj to use the 
powers conferred upon them by the Government, to break it up. I am not here to advi 
New England; but do not let us forget that she is fighting shoulder to shoulder with us to 
maintain that magnificent patrimony of ours which lies between the Potomac and the Gulf — • 
the Atlantic and the western line of Missouri and Arkansas— that she is fighting to transmil 
to our posterity even distant Texas; and letus have no more side-winded compliments for 
Preston S. Brooks, or any other supporter of dames Buchanan, Jefferson Davis, and George 
B. McClellan, at her expense. 

He tells you that .Fudge Douglas excused the suspension of the habeas corptts by Jackson 
under the special circumstances and under a necessity which then existed. In the extracts 
which 1 read to you to-night, Judge Douglas said. "The general alone must be the judj 
the necessity." I shall not read you that passage again; but 1 refer to another portion of 
the same speech, in which the ground taken by Judge Douglas is still more elaborately and 
forcibly stated. 

" lie cared not whether General Jackson suspended all civil authority or not. Ji' his ad 
were necessary to the defence of the country, that necessity was above all law. General 
Jackson hazarded everything ; he hazarded both life and reputation on that step, which might 
render him immortal if he saved the country, or on the contrary, make him ignominious, and 
a by-word, and a reproach; and the man that dared to do thai deserved the protection and 
plaudits of his country, lie did not, envy the feelings of that man. that would get up and talk 
calmly and coolly, under such circumstances, about rules of court ami technicalities of pro- 
ceeding and the danger of example, when the city might be in flames ami the utmosl barbarity 
might be committed. What were rules of court but mere cobwebs when they found an enemy 
with his cannon at the doors of their courts, and they saw the flames encircling the cupola? 
Talk then about rules of courts, and the formality of proceedings ! The man that would do 
this would liddle while the Capitol was burning. He envied not any man the possession of 
such stoical philosophy. Talk about illegality ! Talk about formalities! Why, there was 
one formality to be observed, and that was the formality of directing the cannon, and destroy- 
ing the enemy, regardless of the means, whether it lie by the seizure of cannon-bags, or the 
seizure of persons, if the necessity of the case required it. The God of nature had conferred 
this right on men and nations, and therefore let him not be told that it was unconstitutional. 
To defend the country, let him not be told that it was unconstitutional to use the necessary 
means. The Constitution was adopted for the protection of the country; and under that 
Constitution, trie nation had the right to exercise all the powers that were necessary for the 
protection of the country. If martial law was necessary to the salvation of the country, mar- 
tial law was legal for that purpose. If it was necessary for a judge, for tin' preservation of 
order, to punish for contempt, he thought it was necessary for a general to exercise a i 
over his cannon, to imprison traitor.-, and to arrest spies, and to intercept communication with 
the enemy, li' this was necessary, ail this was legal." 

Thus it is seen that Judge Douglas did not simply excuse the specific act of General .lack- 
son, but made an argument that, will even vindicate lieu. MeClellan's high-handed acts while 
a military commander. 

.My friend asks whether Mr. Seward, when the war is over, will walk into court, and snbrnit 
to the process of the law. Why, certainly; every man who has been serving his country will 
do so, and 1 have no doubt that if any of the Maryland secessionists whom < reneral M c< Jlellan 
imprisoned under a suspension ol' the habeas c< rpus should sue him, he will go into court and 
meet the responsibility; because he has read the doctrines of Mr. Douglas, and he knows 
what Gen. Jackson did under similar circumstances, and how the nation honored him for it. 

My friend probably does not know that General McClellan was the first to indulge in what 
the leaders of the McClellan party are pleased to call "interference with elections." Poor 
Little Mac must feel very badly when assailed in this way at his own meetings. General 
McClellan became the Commander of the. Army of the Potomac on the 26th of duly. 1861. 
He did not become the Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States until the first 



of November. On October 20th, when he had been about three mouths in office as Com- 
mander of the Army of the Potomac, he issued the following order : — 

Headquarters Army of the Potomac, "Washington, October 29, 1861. — General : There 
is an apprehension among Union citizens in many parts of Maryland of an attempt at inter- 
ference with their rights of suffrage by disunion citizens on tne occasion of the election to 
take place on the 6th of November next. 

In order to prevent this the Major-General commanding directs that you send detachments 
of a sufficient number of men to the different points in your vicinity where the election-; are 
to be held, to protect the Union voters, and to see that no disunionists are allow*, d to intimi- 
date them, or in any way to interfere with their rights. 

He also desires you to arrest and hold in confinement till after the election all disunionists 
who are known to have returned from Virginia recently, and who show themselves at the polls. 
and to guard effectually against any invasion of the peace and order of the election. For the 
purpose of carrying out these instructions you are authorized In suspend the habeas carpus. 
General Stone has received similar instructions to these. You will please confer with him 
as to the particular points that each shall take control of. 

1 am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R. B. MARCY, Chief of Staff. 

Major-Gen. N. P. BANKS, Commanding Division, Muddy Branch, Md. 

These Marylanders were to be arrested if they merely showed themselves at the polls ; it was 
not that they should be armed ; they need not try to vote ; they were not to be arrested if 
they made a disturbance or committed a breach of the peace; but any man who was obnox- 
ious to George B. McClellan's views, and who showt d himself al /he polls, was to be arrested 
and imprisoned, and the habeas corpus was to be suspended for that purpose. Yet my com- 
petitor, who denounces such conduct as illegal, unconstitutional, tyrannical, &c. &c, when he 
is on an electioneering trip, attempts to persuade men that it is their duty to vote for George 
B. McClellan, because — of something or another, I do not know exactly what. But 1 will 
venture my life; that after the war is over, General McClellan will respond to any of the people 
who, for showing themselves perhaps on their own steps in the neighborhood of an election 
poll, were cast into prison under his order and suspension of the habeas corpus, lie will 
step freely into court to answer them, not because he is fond of going into danger, but 
because he knows that the American people will say that his act was done in pursuance of a 
general's discretion, at a time when there was great danger, and that that will be his vindica- 
tion. And my friend here would walk into court, with or without a fee, and would show any 
court in America that such orders were constitutional, were sanctioned by the express terms 
of the Constitution, were legal, were based on a continued line of Democratic precedents, and 
that when he and other Democratic orators had been denouncing them before the meetings of 
the party, they only did it in a Pickwickian sense, and did not mean anything by it. 

They cither believe these acts to be unconstitutional, tyrannical and oppressive, or they do 
not. George B. M c< Jlellan either stands on that record, or he disavows it, and I ask my friend 
how the fact is ? There is his order, not as Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of 
the United States — not as Commander-in-chief of the Army, but as Commander of the Army 
of the Potomac — ordering that people who may simply show themselves at the polls, shall be 
arrested, incarcerated, and denied the writ of habeas corpus. If you can show any act paral- 
lel to that in the conduct of Abraham Lincoln, I will say that there is a drawn-game between 
us. You will not find among all the acts of the President any one so recklessly arbitrary as 
this. 

What do you see exhibited in the country at this time ? A large portion of the party that 
stood by James Buchanan and his administration, and saw our forts surrounded with fortifica- 
tions, manned with heavy guns stolen from the government — saw our arsenals denuded of arms. 
which were uiven to the rebels — the party who, speaking through the President's message and 
the Attorney General's opinion of December, 1860, notified the loyal men of the South that if 
they stood up for the Union they would do so at their own peril, for the government would not 
protect them — I say that a large part of that party which stood by that administration, and 
sanctioned and approved its doings, belong to a sworn association under the head of a mili- 
tary commander, and have hundreds of thousands of arms to drive voters away from the polls 
at the coming election. This is a broad and bold charge, but it is not made without full war- 
rant. Lieutenant-Colonel John II. Gardner, of the Invalid Corps, who is well known to many 
of you, and who was in command at Indianapolis, and to whom was confided the order to 
search the premises of Dodd, the commander of the "Sons of Liberty," in Indiana, to whose; 
premises boxes of arms had just gone, sent me a copy of the "Constitution and Laws of the 
S. G. C." 1 do not know exactly what those letters mean; but this copy was found along 
with hundreds of others in the rooms of Dodd, the chief commander. Section 8th provides 
that " the Supreme Commander shall take an oath to observe and maintain the principles of 
the Order, before entering upon the duties of his office, said oath to be prescribed by law. 
He shall be the presiding officer of the Supreme Council, and charged with the execution 
of all laws enacted by it. He shall be commander-in-chief of all military forces belonging 



to the order, in the various States, wht n called into actual service. He shall deliver a mes- 
sage to each meeting of the Supreme Council, showing the condition of the order and such 
recommendations as its interest may demand." 

Now, gentlemen, you begin to see the meaning of the inscription on those banners which 
are carried in the Democratic procession — " A free ballot or a free fight." Just as the Demo- 
cratic Administration stripped us of arms — just as. through President Buchanan's message 
and Attorney-General Black's opinion, the Democratic party of the North pledged itself to 
stand by the men of the South in the unholy work of sundering our country and destroying 
our flag — these leaders are secretly arming men, and swearing them to their secret, so that 
they may still do the promised work, four years later though it be. And they desire that there 
shall be no soldiers in the Northern States — that the habeas corpus shall have full play — 
that every Democratic judge of a police court may let the members of the order run when 
arrested, and that when the election day comes they may appear at the polls with their rifles 
and revolvers, and drive you and other peaceable citizens of the country away. That is part 
of the present conspiracy that is attempted to be executed. 

I say. fill the ranks of your army; stand by the President and the Administration, and 
the commanders of your army and navy in the exercise of all their great constitutional 
powers. Let us show, by the shouts we give for each new victory for the Union, whether 
it lie achieved by Sherman, or Grant, or Sheridan, or Butler, or Parragut, or Porter, or Banks. 
or any other officer — let us show by the manner in which we make the very welkin ring at the 
news of each victory, that we mean to sustain Abraham Lincoln in maintaining the supremacy 
of the Constitution, the unity of the country, the beauty and perfection of the flag of America ; 
that we mean by thus sustaining them to transmit to our posterity the blessings we in- 
herited from our ancestors, unimpaired and undiminished; that we mean to keep this broad 
laud, including the wide fertile fields of the sunny South, with its balmy airs and its brief 
winters ; that we mean to keep this whole country, sweeping from the rock-l>ound coast of the 
Atlantic to the golden sands of the Pacific, from the wintry lakes of the North to that sum- 
mer sea, the Gulf of Mexico, over whose surface the winter winds never howl; that we mean 
to keep this land, capable of maintaining a thousand millions of people of a generation — as 
many as there are in Europe and the elder East combined; for in Europe are 250,000,000, 
and in Asia and the East 750,000,000 ; and our country is able to feed, sustain, house, and 
educate another thousand millions of people; and let us send the word across the wide waste 
of waters to the oppressed people of England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, and all 
Europe, that here in our valleys and on our hills — upon the broad savannas of the South and 
the rolling' prairies of the West — that here they shall find wages for their labor, schools for 
their children, poor though they be — the highest honors of the land open to them all, to 
stimulate their ambition, and that while they share these blessings with us, all we ask of 
them will be, to be good and patriotic citizens of an undivided country, and the most beneficent 
republic the world has ever seen. 



Speech of Hon. Wm. D. Kelley in the Northrop- 
Kelley Debate, 

AT SPRING GARDEN INSTITUTE, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY D. WOLFE BROWN. 

Some of you would probably be a little offended if I were to address you as "my fellow cats 
and kittens;" yet I would be justified in doing so by the language employed by my distin- 
guished opponent on the last evening of our discussion, for lie told us that we have all been 
used as simple cats by that cunning old monkey, New England, to take her chestnuts out of 
the fire — from which 1 infer that he regards our soldiers away off there in their distant encamp- 
ments as but poor unsuspecting kittens, who are being used by that old monkey to pluck her 
chestnuts out of the fire. I had supposed, until I heard this suggestion, that they were there 
trying to re-establish the unity of our country and the supremacy of our Constitution, and to give 
again to our flag, in the eyes of all men and nations, the prestige that belongs to it. 1 had 
supposed, men ofPennslyvania, that when your fathers made "a more perfect union.'' in order 
that, among other blessings, their posterity might enjoy liberty, they worked for you as well 
as for the people of New England; and T also supposed that, the workingmen of Pennsylvania, 
who may have found that from their daily labor they cannot lay up capital enough to leave 
their families above want, have a personal interest in the public lands of this country, which, 
so far as they lie in Florida, Louisiana, and those States west of the Mississippi, which were 
carved out of the Louisiana territory, were bought by us or our ancestors with our money, or 
by the blood of our brothers — that they have such an interest in these public lands as to feel 
that it were better that the elder born boy of each family should die in the defence of this 
right than that the old parents and the younger children should be robbed of so beneficent a 
heritage. I have explained to you that those lands are yours — that you have but to pitch a 
canvas tent upon the given number of acres, and occupy them for five years, when, at the 
mere cost of a, deed, the Government must give you a written and indefeasible title to them. 
And yet my friend so overlooks you in his detestation of New England that he can only see 
her chestnuts in the great conflagration now prevailing.' 

I believe in an offensive war. I complained of Abraham Lincoln that he did not drive on 
the war fast enough. I urged him from the time that McClellan's defection from our great 
cause became apparent to me till he left the command, to make the war aggressive. And in 
conducting these debates I have been better pleased to take my own field, and to put my 
friend upon the defensive, than to dance around in any narrow circle that he might be pleased 
to fashion or prescribe for me. 

To the question whether I " approve of any or all of the twenty-three acts of Congress, each 
having for its object the declared purpose of giving to the negro all the rights, immunities, 
and privileges which have hitherto been enjoyed by the white man only," I give a partial 
answer to-night by saying that there are no such laws on the statute book, and asking my 
friend to point to one such, promising to make a fuller reply to the question when it conies in 
my way, if he shall have done so. Meanwhile, 1 protest that there is not such a law on our 
statute books. 

J make these preliminary remarks and add the sad reflection that my friend has at none of 
our three meetings had a word of condemnation for any Southern Rebel, whether civilian or 
soldier. Yes, having seen tun' Hag tired upon — our fortifications, our custom houses, our post- 
offices, our national hospitals, our mints, our territory taken possession of— having heard from 
the Rebel Secretary of War on the night on which the storming of Sumter was announced at. 
Montgomery, Alabama, that before the then coming first of May the ' - s!ars and bars" would 
float over the Capitol of our country in Washington— having before his view the graves of 
hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died in this war for the defence of our flag — 
the gentleman has no word of condemnation for the perpetrators of these crimes, but tells you 
that he has an " American repugnance to the use of bayonets and the knocking- out of men's 
brains." I am not very fond of it myself; but I confess I had rather put a bayonet through 
another man than have, him put one through me; and, my fellow-citizens, we had reached 
such a poinl that we must creep and crawl, and beg from the invaders the privilege to live, or, 
like Americans indeed, must fight ; and it will require more than one orator of the modern 



peace party o convince me thai in a war of self defence an American has a "repugnance to 
Kecking out the brains" of the invader of his home or country. It is not an "American 
repugnance " The American people arc the mosl martial people in the world. I here is not 
a man in this whole assemblage or in the distrid which I have the honor to represent who, 
if a scoundrel should come into his house, insult his wife, and offer outrage to Ins daughter in 
his presence, would not brain the miscreanl on the spot. The rebels are endeavoring to rob 
your wives and children of their patrimony and you of your honor; and the gentleman feels 
and confesses an " American repugnance to pointing a bayonet at them I tell you all that 
I am for war-war right straight forward until every rebel shall have laid down his bayonel ; 
and if he will not lay it down until his 1. rains are knocked out, then I am in favor ol knocking 
them out; because we must have peace, and with that peace we must enjoy possession o 
every acre and every inch of our country. I do not want to see the war cease as long as there 
is upon our soil an armed band bearing a foreign flag. My honor and yours is involved m 
this issue We are pledged by the memory of our ancestors to overcome the rebel hordes ; 
W c are hound by all the hopes of our posterity ami of humanity to do it. 

Tic gentleman says he "is not the champion of a defunct administration. Let me ask 
him whether he believes in the Chicago Platform? 

Mr. Northrop. Which one— Lincoln's or tin' last one? 
Judge Kelley. 1 mean the Fernando Wood platform. 
Mr.^Northrop. [ do not know any such platform. 

JmFe Kelley. If it is to be regarded as the platform of any man, lei it be ascribed to him 
who had a potent voice in making it, and not to him who was heroically struggling wit i 
multifarious affairs of our distracted country a1 the time when it was making. mean that 
platform which pledges the Democracy to the - Union under the ( onstitution in the future as 
in the mis/'' For Mr. Buchanan's Administration was part of the past ol that party, and the 
phraseology of that resolution was adopted to delude ignorant and thoughtless men and 
lead them to believe that it is a pledge to the maintenance of .the Constitution and the 
country, while in fact it is a pledge that if that party shad come into power, the 1 Uion am. 
the Constitution will he maintained in In;;, just as they were m L860, when that party was 
in power 1 have spent two evenings in showing how that was. It was by building up a 
foreign Confederacy, arming it and giving it a navy, and by stripping you ol arms; .was 
finally bv surrender,..- the puhhe property throughout the South, and the larger part of oni 
country to that armed Confederacy. Therefore, the man who stands ut >for the Cbica|0 plat 
form is hound by those words - as in the past" to vindicate alike the Administration Jamej 
Buchanan and Franklin Pierce. Those administrations are a portion of the Democratic 
party's - pasl ;" and they constitute the last eight years of its "past, and thai is the past 
?o which the authors of the Chicago platform reter when they limil their pledge ol devotion 
to the Union, bv the phrase "in the future as in the past." No man can defend the < hicago 
platform and its nominees who dissents from James Buchanan's message, which announced 
to the people of the South, that the loyal man who dare stand by b IS country and his 
counties flag, against the secessionists of his sovereign State, would do so at his peril, and 
in defiance of the Administration of James Buchanan. _ 

I shall come to the Chicago platform by and by, and discuss it fully. My purpose to-night 
is to o-o on as J have begun, and when we shall have ascertained tie- precise position o bo 
parties with reference to the .ureal question of maintaining our country and its Constitute 
11 will be time enough to go into details aboul acts of Congress, my votes on particular bills, 
and other such questions. I did not pronounce the gentleman's questions - mmapln -,ca 
] simply said that, by the terms of our agreement, 1 was not pledged to answer ain meta- 
nhvsical question that he might see fit to propound. , , 

1 I read to you on last Monday evening an article, the 8th of the Constitution ol the S G- 
C.'s, a secret oath-bound association, and to-night 1 proceed in pursuance ol my argument to 
sl.owvou that the Democratic party-nol the masses o the party-- ( .ml J^ • • 
many honest and unsuspecting members of the party; then, are many o i he 1 < 

that' the party still stands bv the doctrines of its lathers ; there arc many ol them who have 
not had the courage to tear themselves away from the leaders who have long enjoyed their 
confidence, and of such I do not speak. 1 speak of the designing leaders the manageie o fthe 
party, and 1 say that it is their object now. as it was m L8b0, to dismember he Union and 
in this connection I will tell you why my learned friend so assails New England I t is no 
that he hates his old alma mater, Yale College. He took occasion to tell >ou thai [had ^spent 
four years in New England. So did he. J happened, however, to sp< nd those years near 
Bunker 11.11. in the State which gave birth to Hancock and Otis, old pun Adams > and John 
Adams and Warren ; while he spent Ins in the little State that gave birth to both B, nedlC 
Arnold and Isaac Toucey! 1 do not mean to say thai his residence there aff acted to polibcal 
convictions. He was, as I was. a mere boy, or one just stepping over the threshold ot man- 
hood. He was there obtaining that education winch so adorns his speech 1 was there as 
an humble youth in the workshop, earning my daily bread by my daily abor And w 
came away bettered by the good influences of New England. ( onnec.cut. though sh did 
give birth' to two traitors-one who tried to surrender our army, and one who sent twenty- 



seven of the finest ships of our navy to a foreign enemy— is as patriotic a State as any in the P, 
Union Why, sir. among the twelve Apostles there was a Judas; and we are nol to condemn I™ 
a State or a section, because it has given birth to a couple of traitors whose names will stand p 

1 .eminent in history for their treason. The gentleman was not hurt by being in New Eng- Iff 

land- he was not poisoned by breathing the air of the State that gave birth to Toncey and P> 
•Vrnold And he does not hate New England ; he does but echo the slang- of the Southern ny a 
leaders of his party when he abuses her so. They hope by this moans to accomplish a certain P 
after they shall have sundered the Union. They endeavor everywhere and by all means « 
to poison tic- mind of the masses of people against New England. This is not done without 
an object. They want to grant an armistice, which would result in a surrender to the South. 
Now that we have fairly whipped the South they wish us to fall down on our knees and crave 
the slave-masters of that sacred region to give us pardon for having been so bold. Their 
object is to let the South go in peace, hoping that we can woo her baby-selling and woman- 
whipping aristocracy to associate with us again by promising that New England shall be put 
out in the cold or thrown over to a Canadian confederacy. That is the aim. The leaders ot 
that party do not believe that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." They have no word of 
denunciation for slavery or the slave-drivers; but for New England, which gives education 
and wages to every man coming into her borders by birth or emigration, for free New Eng- 
land with her public schools and social equality, they teem with denunciation. 

1 shall proc 1 to show that their purpose is just what 1 have said— to dismember the 

Union in the hope of organizing a Union as a great slave empire, based on the sentiment 
proclaimed by Herschel V.Johnson, in our own Independence Square, at the great Demo- 
cratic meeting, on the 17th of September, 185G. He then and there said: "The difference 
between us, gentlemen, is this— we think it better that capital should own its own labor, while 
you believe that capital should hire its labor." I charge upon the leaders of the Democratic 
party a wilful design to degrade the laboring masses of this country by nationalizmir slavery. 
They know the stubborn resistance which New England presents to this object, and therefore 
thev are going through this land deriding New Englanders, and, as my competitor did, denounc- 
ing Plymouth Bock and its incidents as "a disgrace to any people," poisoning the mmd ot the 
country in the hope that, by pursuing the course that McClellan pursued while he was at the 
head of the army— spending money and refusing to advance— they will yet so exhaust the 
patriotism and energies of the people as to induce them to consent to the arrangement I have 
indicated. 

The section of the Constitution of the S. C. C.'s which! read showed you that there is 
within that party a secrel organization embracing five hundred thousand members, and thai 
it is a military organization under the charge of a " supreme commander," who '"shall be 
commander-in-chief of all military forces belonging to the order in the various States, when 
, -ailed into actual -rue s." Tlie" S. (i. O.'s are not organized like the company to which the 
gentlemen referred, for dress parades, but for active service as lighting men. 

And. b\ the way, 1 may as well refer to the gent Ionian's story of the volunteer who turned 
one way when ordered to go the other, and complained that the company he had thus left had 
deserted him. While you were recovering from the paroxysm produced by this bit of facetia 
he inquired whether 1 admitted that 1 had left the Democratic party or charged that it had 
left me. That does not admit of a question; it left me. The men who forced Calhoun's fatal 
dogmas on the party forced all thinking and honest Democrats to choose between their good 
principles and evil and dangerous associations. Thus forced to elect, I chose to adhere to 
my principles, and let those would-be leaders and their pliant followers go where they might. 
Nor was my decision singular. The masses of the Democracy concurred in it. Look at 
Maine. The people of Maine by twenty thousand used to be with the Democratic party, but 
they have just rolled up a majority of nearly twenty thousand for the party with which I co- 
operate. New Bampshire used to' be with the Democratic party by an almost unbroken vote: 
she was as solid as Berks County. She now as sturdily repudiates the false leaders, principles, 
and measures of the party. Connecticut used to be "a Democratic State. Connecticut now 
sends to Congress three members belonging to the same party with me. and a fourth (Mr. 

English) who is den iced by the leaders of his party in Congress because, though nominally 

a member of their party, he 'has voted steadily against it on all questions of men and money 
to carry on the war: and he could not stand lip a day in Connecticut unless he did so. New 
York was an inveterately Democratic State: but her majority against McClellan, I am told 
by the most knowing men of the State, will be a hundred thousand. Ohio used to be a deter- 
minedly Democratic' State. Did she not give a majority of one hundred thousand against the 
"exiled patriot," Yallandigham. Iowa used to boa Democratic State: but her sous stood 
with me by the principles of the party, and now. with an overwhelming majority, go with the 
party that' I support. Was not Missouri a Democratic State ? She kept old Tom Benton in 
the United States Senate for thirty consecutive years; yet she is more radical to-day than Mas- 
sachusetts, and the quarrel of the leading men of the State with Mr. Lincoln was that he has 
not been radical and rapid enough. Have I not shown that the base element of the party 
sloughed off from the old platform of principles? It was no mere " corporal's guard" they 
left behind ; but the controlling men and animating principles of the old party— yes, gentle- 



neri, I again assert that the present corrupt leaders of the Democratic party — left me stand- 
Dg on the principles of Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson. 

I will take another test and prove my assertion. Who arc the Democratic leaders to-day 
11 over the country? Let us look at our own city. Do you not all know that I have battled 
politically with my friends Wm. B. Reed, and Josiah Randall, ami George M. Wharton, all 
ny life, and with my distinguished friend here, when he was a Whig member of our City 
Jouncils? The leaders are not the same; the principles are not the same Gen. Lewis 
lass lives, at least so the newspapers inform me, to give his vigorous dissent to the Chicago 
ilatform. Preston King-. George Bancroft, Daniel S. Dickinson, and the greal Democrats of 
sew York, Hannibal Hamlin, George S Boutwell, and scores of the greal leaders of the 1 ><>- 
nocracy of New England— John A. Dix, Benjamin Butler, Grant, Sherman. Farragut — are 
.11 Democrats of the old school, but all stand by their country and its flag, and the Adminis- 
ration that is striving to maintain that country and flag. Gentlemen, if my "company" is 
mall, it has, to say the least, some very good soldiers in it. You will not tell me that I need 
e ashamed of it ! 

I now turn to the proceedings of the Grand Council of the State of Indians, at their nv ri- 
ng held on the 16th and 17th of February. 1864. The session (dosed with a resolution "That 
he Grand Secretary prepare and publish, in pamphlet form, the address of the Grand Com- 
nander, with such part of the proceedings of the Grand Council as may be necessary for the 
aformation of the County Temples, and send one copy of said publication to each County 
Demple." 

The Grand Commander begins by addressing his hearers as "Councillors," and in the course 
if his remarks, says : — 

"We are organized for a high and noble purpose, the erection and consecration of Temples 
e the service of true Republicanism; altars upon which we may lay our hands and hearts 
vith the invocation of the ' God of our Fathers.'" (That is the beginning of one of their 
>aths.) ■• Well may we call upon the God of truth, justice, and human rights, in our efforts 
o preserve what the great wisdom and heroic acts of our Fathers achieved. 

"This, my friends, is no small undertaking — requiring patience, fortitude, patriotism, and a 
ielf-sacri (icing disposition from each and all, and may require us to hazard lift itself, in sup- 
)ort and defence of those great cardinal principles which are the foundation stones of the 
state and Federal Government." 

'To hazard life itself, eh ?" Some of the revolvers with which they were to be armed while 
naking the hazard, were seized just as they had got them from New York, into the room of 
Commander Dodd. at the same time this pamphlet was found. 

"The creation of an empire or republic," the Commander continues. " or the reconstruction 
if the old Union, by brute force, is simply impossible. The liberation of four million blacks 
ind putting them upon an equality with the whites, is a scheme which can only bring its 
luthors into shame, contempt, and confusion ; no results of this enterprise will ever be realized 
beyond the army of occupation." 

Is not this, let me ask, precisely the doctrines that my friend has been teaching you : That 
t is a war to free the blacks, and that We can never do anything in that war — -that we cannot 
ioerce the States, or conquer the people of the South ? 

But let the Commander go on : — 

" There n< • d be no appri hension that a war of co< rcion will be continued by a Democratic 
idministration, if placed in control of public ajfairs, for with the experience of the present 
3ne, which has for three years, with the unlimited resources of eighteen millions of people, in 
nen, money, and ships, won nothing but its own disgrace, and probable downfall, it is not 
ikely that another, if it values public estimation, will repeat the experiment." 

You, gentlemen, have not known that when you were cheering for victories, you were 
jheering for the "disgrace" of your country or the administration that presides over it. 

But still again to the commander : "If these men be prolonged in power, they must either 
onsent to be content to exercise the power delegated by the people, or, by the gods, they 
must prove themselves physically the stronger." (They must fight.) "This position is de- 
manded by every true member of this fraternity ; honor, life — ay, more than life, the virtue of 
>ur wives and daughters demands it ; and if you intend to make this organization of any 
practical value, you will do one of two things — either take steps to work the political regene- 
ration of the party with which we are affiliated, up to this standard, or, relying upon ourselves, 
iletermine at once our plan id' action. 

" It might be asked now, shall men be coerced to go to war. in a mere crusade to free negroes, 
ind territorial aggrandizement ? Shall our people lie taxed to carry forward a war of eman- 
cipation, miscegenation, confiscation, or extermination?" 

No : but it shall, Mr. Commander, and will be carried on to defend and maintain the great 
nation known as the United States. 

But still again : — 

" It would lie the happiest day of my life, if I could stand up with any considerable portion 
Df my fellow-men and say, not another dollar — not another man for this nefarious war. But 
:he views and suggestions of exiled Yallandigham will be of greater consequence to you than 



my own. He soys to yon, " the only issue now is p< ace or war." Vallandigham, like bis emi- 
nent disciple my friend, has an " American repugnance to bayonets and knocking out people's 
brains," and he says that " the only issue now is peace or war.") "To the former he is com- 
mitted, and cannot, will not retract. He tells us not to commit ourselves to men ; as well as 
he loves, and much as he admires the little hero McClellan, he would have the Chicago Con- 
vention act with untrammelled freedom. He reasons that the spring campaign will be more 
disastrous to the Federal armies than those heretofore made. That by July, the increased 
call for troops, the certainty of a prolonged war, the rottenness of the financial system, de- 
fection of border State troops, the spread and adoption of the principles of this organization, 
will all tend to bring conservative men to one, mind." 

The commander must have forgotten that we had not McClellan still at the head of the 
army when he supposed that the spring campaign would be so disastrous, and would drag- 
along so slowly, lb' did not remember that we had put "real" soldiers at the head of the 
army. He did not know that Sherman was going right down to Atlanta to take possession 
of the Southern railroad system. He did not know that Grant was going to hem in Lee's 
army and the citizens of Petersburg and Richmond, and then let Sheridan go down the Val- 
ley, cutting off their last railroad communications, so that in a little while they must surren- 
der just as was done to Grant at Vicksburg and to Banks (who is still not in a gunboat) at 
Tort Hudson. 

Gentlemen : these peace Democrats are just as much mistaken when they say that we 
cannot conquer and repossess our own country, as they were in supposing that Grant and 
Sherman and Sheridan would not move our columns onward, or Farragut bring his guns into 
play. 

In the gentleman's clamor against New England, he cites the Hartford Convention as an 
objectionable part of her record. 

Do you not know, sir [addressing Mr. Northrop], that in the speech you made this evening 
you elaborated and approved the doctrines of the Hartford Convention? Do you not know 
that the men concerned in that movement were the peace men of 1812? Do you not know 
that they clamored for peace, and urged against the then Democratic Administration every 
charge that you and the Democratic leaders urge against Abraham Liucoln to-night? Do 
you not know that in that very portion of their report that you read was embodied the spirit 
of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, which were indorsed by the Cincinnati Demo- 
cratic platform of L856, and were reaffirmed by the Democratic (.'(invention of 1860? It is 
wonderful that you have failed to perceive all this. At the Chicago Convention, Mr. Long, 
of Ohio, again offered those resolutions, and they were rejected. V 'hy were they rejected? 
Because by those resolutions the right of a State that believes her constitutional rights to 
have been infringed is limited to nullifying the unconstitutional act. Mark you. in 17!).^ 
Virginia and Kentucky adopted resolutions defining the jurisdiction of the National Govern- 
ment over the States; and the Kentucky resolutions set forth that if the United States 
Government should infringe the reserved rights of a State, that State might nullify the objec- 
tionable act until its constitutionality could be tried in the Supreme Court. Mr. Alexander 
Long (whom we voted in Congress to lie an unworthy member, and whom we would have 
expelled, but that the Democratic members sustained him. for praying God that we might 
never conquer the South 1 introduced those resolutions at Chicago as an addition to the plat- 
form, and the members of the Convention rejected them on the ground that they believed in 
the doctrine of secession, while the old States Rights resolutions of Kentucky and Virginia 
limited the remedial right of a State to the nullifying' of an act until the Supreme Court 
could pass on its constitutionality. Those resolutions were not broad enough for the Chicago 
Convention; they did not assert the right of the South to secede, but did limit the remedial 
right of a State to the nullification of an unconstitutional law. The members of that Con- 
vention knew that the Federal ( iovernineut had violated no constitutional right of the Southern 
Slates, and therefore they would not adopt those resolutions. 

bet me now turn to the passage which was read the other evening by my distinguished 
friend from Dwight's History of the Hartford Convention. D is in these words: — 

'• That acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution are absolutely void, is an undeniable 
position. It does not. however, consist with the respect and forbearance due from a Con- 
federate Stale towards the General Government, to Hy to open resistance upon every infraction 
of the Constitution. The mode and energy of the opposition should always conform to the 
nature of the violation, the intention id' its authors, the extent of the injury inflicted, the 
determination manifested to persisl in it. and the danger of delay. Hut in cases of deliberate, 
dangerous, and palpable infractions of the Constitution, affecting- the sovereignty id' a State 
and liberties of the people, it is not only the right, but the duty, of such a State to interpose 
its authority for their protection, in the manner host calculated to secure that end. When 
emergencies occur which are either beyond the reach of the judicial tribunals, or too pressing 
to admit of the delay incidenl to their forms. States, which have no common umpire, must be 
their own judges and execute their own decisions." 

It so happens, however, that the States of this Union have a common umpire. My friend 
has made to-night, and throughout this discussion, so far as he has argued logically, just the 



argument contained in the passage I have just read. He tells yon thai the Southern Stales 
went out of the Union because the Northern people said ugly things to them ; and he read 
portions of what had been said. Jle asked you whether you would no1 strike a person who 
called yon a liar, implying that the Southern States were righl in the course they have taken, 
because sumo persons in the North have applied offensive epithets, not, however, sucl 
" mudsills of society." to them. He contends furiously far " free speech ;" while his whole 
argument in justification of the South and its wicked war is founded on the fact that certain 
men in New England during a long period of time have thoughl for themselves, and have 
said what they thought. He does not point you to a single ad of violence on the part of 
New England, or of any one of the States of New England. His whole complaint is thai 
some of her clergymen and other citizens will think, and will say what they think, and that 
therefore the Smith has. to say the least, a thorough palliation, if not a sufficienl vindication 
of her absolute right to £'0 out and make war on us who remain. Is it nol SO? 

When the gentleman denounced the Hartford Convention and its address, he was denounc- 
ing his own doctrines. That assemblage of New England gentlemen who, self-appointed, 
without authority and without power, met and prepared an address, which the gentleman 
professes to condemn, agreed with him more largely than he is willing to let you know. Did 
not the gentleman a night or two ago close his speech by denunciations of conscription ? 
Did he not contend that the National Government, by assuming the righl to conscripl and to 
manage the militia of the States, is converting the State militia into a standing army? Lei 
me return to the address of the Hartford Convention. 1 will read from page 358, while he 
read from page 361 of the same volume; there is bu1 one leaf between the two extracts. The 
book is Dwight's Hartford Convention. 

"The power of dividing the militia of the States into classes, and obliging such classes to 
furnish by contract or draft, able-bodied men to serve for one or more years for the defence 
of the frontier, is not delegated to Congress. If a claim to draft the militia for one year for 
such general object be admissible, no limitation can be assigned to it, but the discretion of 
those who make the law. Thus, with a power in Congress to authorize such a draft or con- 
scription, and in the Executive to decide conclusively upon the existence and continual] 
tlii' emergency, the whole militia may be converted into a standing army, disposable at the 
will of the President of the United States. 

"The power of compelling the militia, and other citizens of the United States, by a for 
draft or conscription, to serve in the regular armies as proposed in a late official letter of the 
Secretary of War, is not delegated to Congress by the Constitution, and the exercise of it 
would not be less dangerous to their liberties, than hostile to the sovereignty of the States. 
The effort to deduce this power from the right of raising armies, is a flagrant attempl to per- 
vert the sense of the clause in the Constitution which confers thai right, and is incompatible 
with other provisions iu that instrument. The armies id' the United States have always 
raised by contract, never by conscription, and nothing now can be wanting to a Governmenl 
possessing the power thus claimed to enable it to usurp the entire control of the militia, in 
derogation of the authority of the State, and to convert it by impressmenl into a standing 
army." 

Are not these identically the suggestions of the gentleman? They are; and 1 beg him nol 
to tell me, an old Democrat, that it is the Democratic party which stands on the doctrines of 
Benedid Arnold, of the Peace men of 1812, and the Peace men of the war with Mexico. A 
true Democrat denounces Arnold as a traitor, regards most of the doctrines of the Hartford 
Convention as dangerous, and believes that the war with Mexico was a just war. I learned 
all these things in the Democratic party, and 1 proclaimed them all through L 844, and at 
later periods when, long after 1 had come from New England, 1 stumped this State in the 
cause of the Democratic party. But. oh. God! what would the spirit of Thomas Jefferson 
think, if it could hear these Peace men proclaiming, in his name and in the name of I lemocracy, 
the treasonable sentiments of Arnold, the doctrines of the Hartford Convention, and the 
clamors of the Peace men of the .Mexican War? 

Here is the book which the gentleman introduced; here is the report from which hi' read. 
Now, who made that report ? Is New England responsible for it '.' Did it emanate from any 
Legislature of New England ? Was it made by any official body? No: certain gentlemen 
who had been elected to different Legislatures, and who held the tenets id' the modern 1' 
Democracy — who were opposed to the war— who were aiding our enemies by embarrassing 
the Government — appointed a meeting at Hartford, just as Judge Black and Fernando A\ ood, 
and a number of peace men appointed a meeting the other day. at the New York Hotel, in 
the city of New York. They were merely private citizens (though very distinguished 
and they adopted an d published a report. But even they (and the gentleman knows it as 
well as I do), opposed as they were to the war. did not ask that the war should be .-topped. 
They said that New England's frontier was not protected; that an adequate navy was not 
provided; that their fishermen and commercial marine were neglected : that their coast and 
their seaports had no defence, and they asked that New England mighl be permitted to raise 
her own taxes and carry on the war. so far as the coast and limits of New England extended, 
at her own cost and at her own risk. That is what they asked. They did not ask that the 



flag should be stricken and furled, and an armistice granted, and that we should try to coax 
our enemy into consenting " on some terms or other," to let us go without looking at that 
ugly thing, a bayonet, which it is so un-American to use. Even the members of the Hartford 
Convention did not so far forgel what was due to their manhood as to do that. But the 
gentleman has assumed all their doctrines, and he must stand by them. 

Let me pause to ask what the sentiment of New England really was in regard to the con- 
stitutional questions involved in the extract which the gentleman read? The book which T 
hold in my hand (Elliott's Debates, vol. iv.) contains the answer of every New England Stale 
to the Virginia resolutions of 1798. There is the answer of Connecticut, of Massachusetts, 
of New Hampshire, of Vermont, of Rhode Island. They are all there. 1 commend them to 
the gentleman, and I ask him to find in one of them any declaration which does not say that 
the Union is supreme, which does nut repudiate the doctrines both of the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky resolutions of 1798, and of the Hartford Convention — which does not put those States 
thoroughly upon the doctrine of the supremacy of the General Government. And, sir, no 
one of these States has failed to fill its quota, and to fill it promptly, under any call during 
this war. 

Thus, I have shown, that when the gentleman went to New England to find all that was, 
in his judgment, vile — all that he might hope would inflame your passions — he found in the 
saddest page of her history his own doctrines; when he pointed to the most damning fact in 
her whole record, he held up before you the conduct and opinions of men who, did they still 
live, and hold the opinions they theu did, would rally around him and cheer him for the 
speeches he is making to-night. 

Now, sir, I pass to another point. I am, sir, in favor of maintaining the Monroe Doctrine. 
But what is the use of talking about the Monroe Doctrine, while between our armies and 
Mexico, or Central America, lies a proud military Confederacy. We cannot attempt to carry 
out the Monroe Doctrine until we get Jeff. Davis and his army out of the way. And what 
is the use of fighting Europe aboul an abstraction which cannot become practical until we 
shall have repossessed our country? I turn, sir. and ask you, whether you are in favor of 
the Monroe Doctrine; and if you say you are, I ask you to explain how the United States 
Government can enforce the Monroe Doctrine if it permits an alien Confederacy to extend 
from the Sabine, ay, from the Del Norte to the Potomac. It is my devotion to the Monroe 
Doctrine that makes me want to see this foreign government that has been set up on our 
soil kicked into the Gulf. No foreign or stranger power must flout a flag alongside of ours, 
on the American continent, whether it be the stars and bars of Jeff. Davis, or the lily of 
France, or the eagle of Austria; and I tell you. my friends, that when we have finished the 
war in which we are now engaged, the Monroe doctrine must be enforced. When that is to 
be done, the 127th regiment of U. S. colored troops, that I saw march through the city to- 
day, with others like it, will be of special value. They are composed of just the kind of men 
to walk across Central America, for the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine. We of the 
white race cannot go there. That is a tropical country; it is malarious; and its malaria is 
fatal to our race. Do you know that so fatal a region is that to the white man, that to con- 
struct the railroad across the Isthmus cost seven thousand human lives? Men took the job 
of working upon it. Their names appeared on the pay-roll for one, two, or three days, and 
then they disappeared forever — victims to the Chagres fever, as travellers call it. Our 
enterprising but heartless men, instead of taking negro laborers to make that railroad, be- 
cause they are opposed to giving the negro wages for his work, pressed on and hired white 
men until they had laid along the line of that short road the bones of seven thousand human 
beings. We who are born in the North — -we whose skins are white, and who thrive in the 
cold regions of the world — we who, in the North, live long, carry our teeth well, get many 
children, cannot live and propagate in that tropical and malarious region. Our race runs out 
there. But in that region the negro lives long; he carries a head as white as the driven 
snow, because no snow comes there to chill him ; his family is numerous, and he dies with his 
teeth firmly set in his head. And when we shall have "crushed out" this rebellion, these 
black' soldiers of ours will take the American flag in their hands, and sweep across that to us 
pestilent region, and drive the Austrian cousin of the august Emperor of France into the 
ocean or on to a "gunboat," and maintain, in the name of the American people, the Monroe 
doctrine. But they, with the other soldiers of our army, must- first annihilate the army of 
Jefferson Davis, which enjoys in so eminent a degree the sympathy of my friend, because the 
New England people made feces at the Southern people and called them ugly names. Yes, 
I am in favor of the Monroe doctrine, of preventing all foreign interference in this country, 
and so are you, my honest Democratic fellow citizens; and you will overwhelm your 
leaders with indignant contempt, when you come to fairly and fully understand what they 
have been and are now doing. 

Now let us turn to the letter of Lord Lyons to Earl Russell, respecting mediation. It is 
an official communication from the English Minister to lbs Government. It is dated Wash- 
ington. November 17th, 1862 — two years ago the coming 17th of November. 

Lord Lyons writes: — 

" In his despatches of the 17th and 24th ultimo, and of the 17th instant, Mr. Stuart reported 



to your lordship the result of the elections for members of Congress and State officers, which 
have recently taken place in several of the most important States of the Union. Without 
repeating the details, it will be sufficient for me to observe that the successes of the Demo- 
cratic, or (as it now styles itself) the conservative party, lias been so great as to main 1 
change in public feeling, among the most rapid and the most complete that lias ever been 
witnessed in this country. 

" On my arrival at New York, on the 8th instant, I found the conservative leaders exulting 
in the crowning success achieved by the party in the State.' They appeared to rejoice, above 
all, in the conviction that personal liberty and freedom of speech had been secured for the 
principal State of the Union. They believed that the Government must at once desisl from 
exercising in the State of New York the extraordinary (and as they regarded them) illegal 
and unconstitutional powers which it had assumed. They were confident that at all events 
after the 1st of January next, on which day the newly-elected Governor would come into 
office, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus could not be practically maintained." 

Mark you, Democrats, Lord Lyons informed his Government that the Democratic leaders 
believed that Horatio Seymour would bring on a collision between the State of New York 
and the General Government, rather than permit the Government to do that which I have 
shown you General Jackson did. and by vindicating the constitutionality of which Douglas 
made his fame. And they talk about being Democrats and patriots. 

His Lordship continues: — ■ 

" On the following morning, however, intelligence arrived from Washington which dashed 
the rising hopes of the Conservatives. It was announced that General McClellan had been 
dismissed from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and ordered to repair to his bome ; 
that he had, in fact, been removed altogether from active service. The General had been 
regarded as the representative of conservative principles in /he army." 

"The General had been regarded as the representative of conservative principles in the 
army," — when "conservative principles" meant opposition to the suspension of the habeas 
corpus and similar exertions of constitutional power! Was he cheating the Democratic 
leaders, or was he cheating the Government and the country? We looked upon him as the 
head of our army — as one who was striving to lead it to victory; but the Democratic peace. 
leaders who were in confidential relations with him looked upon him as their '■representative" 
in the army ! 

Again, his Lordship says : "Support of him had been made one of the articles of the Con- 
servative electoral programme. J lis dismissal was taken as a sign that the President had 
thrown himself entirely into the arms of the extreme radical party, and that the attempt to 
carry out the policy of that party would be persisted in. The irritation of the Consi natives 
at New York was certainly very great; it seemed, however, to be not unmixed with conster- 
nation and despondency." 

I do not wonder at it ; for they sawthat when he was removed, it was probable that his place 
would be filled by a General who would represent the United States and not the Democratic 
Peace party. In such a change they fouud full cause for their " consternation and despon- 
dency." 

But again : " Several of the leaders of the Democratic party sought interviews with me, 
both before and after the arrival of the intelligence of General McClellan's dismissal. The 
subject uppermost in their minds, while they were speaking to me, was naturally that of foi 
mediation between the North and South." 

Here we see the leaders of the Democratic party creeping to the feet of the British minister, 
to talk of foreign mediation. Are you, sir, and are these your political brethren in favor of 
the Monroe doctrine ? 

But to his Lordship again : "Many of them seemed to think that this mediation must come 
at last, but they appeared to be very much afraid of its coming too soon. It was evident that 
they apprehended that a premature proposal of foreign intervention would afford the Radical 
party a means of reviving the violent war spirit, and of thus defeating the peaceful plans of 
the Conservatives." 

Gentlemen, do you not agree with me in thinking that if the citizens of this country, espe- 
cially the honest Democrats, had known that the Democratic leaders were with Lord Lyons, 
trying to get his Government to straighten us up, by dividing our country, it would have 
" revived the radical spirit" a little, and possibly at the cost of some of those leaders? 

" They," says his Lordship, " appeared to regard the present moment as peculiarly unfavor- 
able for such an offer, and indeed to hold that it would be essential to the success of any 
proposal from abroad, that it should be deferred until the control of the Executive Govern- 
ment should be in the hands of the Conservative party." 

They pledged themselves to Lord Lyons that when the Government should come into their 
hands Great Britain should have her way about dividing our country; but they thought it 
would not be judicious to make the proposition at that time. " Wait," said they. " till the 
Government comes into the hands of the Conservative party" — the party of my friend here 
and of General McClellan, and of that eminent conservative. George H. Pendleton, who has 
never voted a man or a dollar for the prosecution of this war. 



" I gave no opinion," say? Tier Majesty's minister, when reporting the part he took in this 
council of Democratic leaders, " on the subject. I did not say whether or no I myself thought 
foreign intervention probable or advisable, but I listened with attentions the accounts given 
me of the plans and hopes of the conservative party. At the bottom Ithought I perceived a 
desire to put an < nd to the war, evt n at the risk of losing the Southern States altogether." 

I am going to prove thai his lordship was not mistaken, and that what they mean is to let 
the Southern States go. I ask my friend, what value the Monroe doctrine would have for us, 
alter we had let the Southern Stales go ? What interest we would have in the Monroe doc- 
trine, with a foreign military Confederacy sweeping from the Potomac to the Rio Grande . 

'• Hut," continues his lordship, " it was plain that it was not thought prudent to avow this 
/nth,',!, some hints of it, dropp*. d before the election, wt reso ill receivedthat a strong 
declaration in the contrary sense was deemed necessary by the Democratic leaders." 

I pray you, my Democratic fellow-citizens, mark the course of your leaders when in secret 
council. D proves that they do not tell you what they believe ; that they only tell you what 
they think will induce you to give them power and follow their fortunes. Lord Lyons says 
they were willing to make peace and let the South go; but, that on sounding the pulse of 
the people, and finding that such a doctrine was unpopular, they announced, as you know, 
that if you would put the Government in their hands, they would carry on the war more vig- 
orously than we had done. D was when they had determined on this system of fraud and 
duplicity that they started the lies with which their addresses and papers thenceforth teemed ; 
that the Government had embarrassed McClellan, and would not give him all the men it 
could ; that the Democrats were anxious to bring the war to a successful close, but the Gov- 
ernment would not let them, because the war was a profitable thing for " shoddy" and other 
contractors, etc. You remember all this as well as I do, especially you who attended Demo- 
cratic meetings or read the journals of that party. But let me finish w 7 ith his Lordship's des- 
patch. 

"At. the present moment, therefore, the chiefs of the Conservative party call loudly for a 
more vigorous prosecution of the war, and reproach the Government with slackness as well 
as witli want of success in its military measures. But they repudiate all idea of interfering 
with the institutions of the Southern people, or of waging a war of subjugation or extermina- 
tion. They maintain that the object of the military operations should be to place the North 
in a position to demand an armistice with honor and effect. The armistice should, they hold, 
be followed by a convention," (thus two years ago you find these Democratic leaders an- 
nouncing just what should be the platform of the Chicago Convention — an armistice with a 
view to a convention) — " in which such change of the Constitution should be proposed as 
would give the South ample security on the subject of its slave property, and would enable 
the North and South tore-unite and live together in peace and harmony. The Conservatives 
profess to think that the South might be induced to take part in such a convention, and that 
a restoration of the Union would be the result. 

■ ''The more sagacious members of the party must, however, look upon the proposal of a 
convention merely as a last experiment to test the possibility of re-union. They are, no 
doubt, well aware that the more probable consequence of an armistice would be the estab- 
lishment of Southern independence, lint they perceive that if the South is so utterly alienated 
that no possible concessions will induce it to return voluntarily to the Union, it is wiser to 
agree to separate than to prosecute a cruel and hopeless war." 

Le1 me borrow the language of my friend's seventh interrogation, and ask whether you are 
'•In favor of the non-intervention of foreign powers on this continent, known as the .Monroe 
Doctrine," or are you ready to crawl with the leaders of the Peace Democracy to the feet of 
the British lion, and ask its intervention with the affairs not only of the continent but of our 
own dear country, whose fathers fought that lion eight long years? A.re you ready to see 
this country, which, united, can defy ami conquer the world on land or sea. divided, that while 
nd fights one-half of it. Prance, with its Austrian Emperor in Mexico, may Bgh1 the 
oilier hair? If you are not, I beg yea in the name of God and your country to abandon the 
Democratic leaders, who are treating with Lord Lyons and the titled representatives of other 
powers of the continent with reference to the division of our country by an armistice and the 
delusive promise of a convention, which they know can never be had. A people who, having 
rebelled and fought us for four years, and right on the eve of our final victory, have been 
d all they asked, will no1 make terms with a people whom they would have so good 
reason to despise as fools, cowards, or traitors, [fwe withdraw our forces from Atlanta, from 
Petersburg, from the Shenandoah Valley, and old Farragut from the front id' Mobile, and our 
fleet from the front of Charleston, and our forces from Louisiana, if we surrender to the 
Southern rebels the free State of West Virginia — if we surrender to them Kentucky, whose 
people, though they for a time occupied a position of neutrality, are new fighting grandly for 
the old Bag— if we surrender Andrew Johnson and the people of East Tennessee to the 
lords of the lash — could they have respect lor or confidence in us? Why, when we have done 
thus much they will make us pay for every slave they have lot. and assume their war debt, 
too. They would threaten us with the dreaded "bayonet" if we did not do all this, and do it 
promptly — and they would have the right to make these demands, for such a surrender would 



be a confession that we have been wrong in defending our country, and they righl in assailing 
it. Certain it is that they will never come into council with us after we have granted them 
an armistice, and begged their pardon for havin I our d itionality and 

Gentlemen, I may be very prosy: but I cannot help thai ! My wish is to make a chain of 
argument, and weave it together with facts which yon all know,. and which none of you can 
dispute. I must, therefore, still pursue my own method rather than that suggested I 
competitor. 

Now for the first resolution of the Chicago platform, it read- thus: — 

'• Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will adhere with unswerving fidelity to the 
Union under the Constitution, as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, ami 
happiness as a people, and as a framework of government equally conducive to the wi 
and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern." 

T reiterate what 1 have already said, that, iu order to understand this declaration, you i 
refer to what the Democratic party has done in tin 1 past. Designing men and their dupes 
contend that this resolution is a pledge that the party will support the Union. Gentl 
did you ever see a three-sided sign, which, as you walk one way. exhibits one name, and as 
you walk another way. displays another, and, when yen stand in front of it, shows still ano 
1 have often seen such; there used to lie several of them in this city. This resolution is like 
one of those signs. To the Southern man it reads " the right of secession ;" to the unsus- 
pec in-- Northern Democrat, who goes with the party because he has always belonged to it. it 
reads "the Union;" and when you are right in front of it, as my friend am! the I " 
managers are, it reads "State Sovereignty." 

To 11 simple, unsuspecting man, this declaration is. on its face, a pledge of fidelity to the 
Union. Coupled as it is with the words, " as in the past," it is a pledge to every Southern 
States rights man that the party adheres to the doctrines which induced Buchanan ami his 
cabinet to allow the Southern rebels to construct fortifications around our foils, make prisoners 
of our regular army, rob us of our arms, and go out of the Union, without an resist- 

ance on the part of the administration. 

" but," says my friend. " what could Mr. Buchanan have done'.'" "Why, he could have 
sent the arms all North instead of sending them all South; he could have armed all the forts 
in front of Southern cities, instead of leaving them without armament; he could have 
Twiggs and Canby, with their armies, north, of the slave States, and had them ready to 
threaten to descend upon the insurgents, instead of putting them where they could be taken 
prisoners without any trouble. Indeed, Twiggs handed his troops over of his own accord. 
Mr. Buchanan could have sent into Congress Jackson's proclamation I o the N ullifiers, adding 
a little postscript, saying, " 1 say ditto to General .Jackson" — just as, in the English Parliament, 
a member, unable to compose a speech, but desirous to make a " splurge," foil of M r. 

Burke's eloquent addresses with the word- " I say ditto to Mr. Burke!" If James Buchanan 
could not find in the Constitution anything to justify him in maintaining tin 1 Union, he could 
have taken General Jackson's proclamation to the people of South Carolina, and sent it into 
Congress, saying, " \ believe every doctrine expressed in this great state paper, and v 
under like circumstances as General Jackson would h I." instead of sending a message 

which conveyed a threat to the poor Union people of the South that if they d ired to stand 
up to the country and their rights he would abandon them to the tender mere ir man 

stealing and woman-whipping neighbors. That is what he could have done: and had hi 
this, or asserted a determination to do it, there would not have been war. But for the c< 
of certain Northern men who pledged themselves to sustain the South in secession am! to Id her 
go in peace— but for the course of Mr. Buchanan's Administration in arming and for- 
the rebels, in depriving us of soldiers and giving them a navy -they never would have under- 
taken the work of breaking up the Union. It we had had a patriot in the Presidential chair, 
instead of James Buchanan, this war would not have desolated our homes and burdened us 
with taxes. No man who will take up the plank id' the Chicago platform, which T have read. 
and study it in the light of history, and ask who is to construe the Constitution, if McClellan 
be elected, will doubt its meaning, if the Democracy get into power. They will take their 
own view of it— won't they'.' Well, what is Mr. Pendleton's view? Mr. Pendleton was in 
Congress during- the whole of Buchanan's Administration, lie made a speech defending 
James Buchanan's message and denying the right of the Federal Government to coi 
State. He is as fully committed to secession as Jefferson Davis himself; and in proof of this 
I refer you to the columns of the Globe throughout the eight years that he has been in Con- 
gress. He is an open and avowed secessionist; he does not deny it. The convention that 
nominated him dan' not ask him for a formal acceptance of the nomination. The convention 
appointed a committee to apprise the candidates of their nomination; and that committee 
have never yet addressed a. line to Mr. Pendleton, because thej know what his answer would 
be—that he would reply " that he accepts the platform which is perfectly consistent with his 
entire Congressional record." That would be his answer, and the men of that Convention. 
who are playing a double game, are afraid to draw that answer forth. When did Yoorhees — 
when did either of the AVoods— when did Alexander Long, of Ohio — when did the Demo 
representative from Berks County, Mr. Ancona, or the representative from the Democratic 



county of Northampton, "Sir. Johnson, or from Montgomery and Lehigh, Mr. Stiles, or any 
other of the leading Democratic members from this State-, ever vote for a dollar or a man to 
sustain this war? They are for peace. They believe in the right of the Southern States to 
secede and carry with them our patrimony. They know how the Democratic party preserved 
the Union in the past. 

I now, as my time is nearly expended, pass to the third plank of the Chicago platform : but 
let me first remind you that I have read you an article from the Constitution of the Sons of 
Liberty or the Knights of the Golden Circle, and extracts from a speech of the Grand Com- 
mander of the order. 1 now proceed to show that one object of the Chicago platform was to 
indorse and encourage the arming of people to assail us at the polls contemplated by the 
order. The third resolution reads thus: — 

•• Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authority of the United States in the 
recent, elections held in Kentucky, Maryland. Missouri, and Delaware was a shameful violation 
of the Constitution, and the repetition of such acts in the approaching election will be held 
as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means and power under our control." 

Who perpetrated the acts thus denounced in Maryland— who issued the order of 'October, 
1861, which 1 read to you on the last evening of this discussion— but the very man whom 
they have placed on their platform? Geo. B. McClellan, in October, 1861, ordered his troops 
to arrest any man of a certain description who might show himself at the polls. Yet the 
( 'on vent ion denounces such acts as "revolutionary." and "a shameful violation of the Consti- 
tution." and pledges the Democratic party to resist a repetition of them "with all the means 
and power under their control," and are going around denouncing the suspension of the habeas 
corpus, and talking in vague and unmeaning terms about the unconstitutional acts, the tyranny, 
and the oppression of Abraham Lincoln. Do they point out one tyrannical or unconstitutional 
act? No, not one. They are trying to inflame the passions and extinguish the patriotism of 
the people, so as to induce them to make a scene of riot and carnage on election day;, and 
they demand that all troops shall be removed from the Northern States, that they may execute 
their fiendish purpose with impunity. As Lord Lyons could write to his Government, on the 
17th of November. 1862, what the Chicago platform of 1864 was to be, so the Sons of Liberty, 
who pledge themselves to lay down their lives, and began buying arms, understood what the 
platform was to be. and they understand what the game is to be. 

The object of these conspirators is to surrender half of our country to a foreign Confederacy, 
and then they hope to carry one State after another into that Confederacy, so that free, intelli- 
gent, wages-paying New England, with its undying hatred of human slavery, shall be left out 
of the new organization. I am against the whole scheme. I am heir to the honors and 
glories of every Revolutionary battle that was fought in the Southern States. They are 
ioms belonging to me and my posterity. My forefathers were soldiers in the Revolutionary 
War, and all its honors belong to me in common with the people of this country. Bunker 
Hill and Lexington belong to me ami to you ; and while I am unwilling to let them take Lutaw 
or Camden out id' the Union. I am also unwilling to let them, by denunciation or chicanery, 
put Bunker Hill or Lexington from under the flag of my country. They are all ours. The men 
of (he South and the men of New England tracked with their blood the snows of Valley 
Forge with our Pennsylvania fathers. It is all, all our country, and we have but to stand by 
President Lincoln and the war, and our children will inherit it all. 

The gentleman said the other night that all wars end by negotiations, treaty, and compro- 
mise. Yes, all international wars do. but it is not true of civil wars. If it were so, every 
rebellion that ever has occurred would have ended in the division of one country into two. 
But rebellions are generally put down. Texas achieved her independence of Mexico ; but Ire- 
land has never been aide to achieve her independence of England. Poor Kossuth could not 
achieve the independence of Hungary. Hungary was put down. Poland has never been 
able to achieve her independence of Russia. Insurrections and rebellions are put down. 
1* tople love their country. They may complain of their institutions. 1 gave Poland my sym- 
pathy in the davs of in v youth. I gave 1 1 ungary my synipat by ; and one of the proudest, tes- 
timonials of my life is an autograph letter from Louis Kossuth, thanking me for what 1 had 
done for Hungary. 1 had argued her cause as my friend tells us Abraham Lincoln argued 
tic cause of Texas, when her people and our friends who had gone there were striking for free- 
dom against Mexican despotism and misrule. I ask you to give Abraham Lincoln credit 
for the good words my friend read to you. and remember that they were uttered in favor of the 
Texan people enjoying a free American constitution, instead of being recommitted to the des- 
potism of distant and misgoverned Mexico. 

Yes, rebellions are generally put down ; and this one will be put down. The Chicago Con- 
vention pronounced our war a failure. They lied in the throat when they said so. No nation 
his ever conquered so much territory in the same time. Members of the Democratic party 
have told us on the floor of Congress and through their newspapers, that we never can con- 
quer an agricultural people of twelve millions, living on their own soil. Are we not doing it 
rapidly, thoroughly ? 1 first saw t lie rebel stars and bars across the Susquehanna, floating 
over most of the houses of the little town of Havre de Grace. At that time, Ben. Butler, 
win uu my friend so loathes, had to take his troops down the Susquehanna, and around by An- 



napolis, to get them to "Washington to defend the Capital. We have meanwhile conquered 
Maryland, and her people are freer, happier, and more prosperous t ban they ever were before. 
A Republican or an Abolitionist is no longer in danger there, bu1 may think and speak freely. 
I have discussed the issues of the day and maintained the right of every laborer to wages in 
the lower counties of Maryland, to audiences in which whites and blacks, slaves and slave 

owners, were mingled like the squares of a checker-board ; and the man who speaks -I ol 

freedom, and shows most plainly the curse of slavery, is most welcome in that region as an 
orator. We hold West Virginia, aud it is a free State, no longer held, as England holds 
Ireland, or Austria holds Hungary, by the slave-driving aristocrats of East Virginia. It is a 
free State, and the people govern themselves. They knew by terrible experience the despot- 
ism from which they have escaped. Why, under the law of the old State, when men and 
women were selling at $2000 per head, they were by law assessed as worth only three hundred 
dollars, and when you could sell a babe in the hour of its birth, if the doctor pronounced it 
healthy, for $100. the dealers in human flesh b^jng the ruling power of the State, would nol allow 
it to be taxed at all until it came to be twelve years of age. The brutal aristocracy control- 
ling the State taxed the pig of the farmer in West Virginia ; they taxed his horses, his plough : 
they taxed his industry in every shape ; but by statute they reduced their -lave property to 
less than one-sixth of its value before they allowed the assessor to come near it. There 
stands West Virginia, a free State to-day — as the gentleman would say, a "sovereign State" 
—with her three Union members of Congress and her two Union Senators. I know that 
gentleman does not like it. because it proves that the Administration and its friends are re- 
constructing the Union. It was for this reason that the delegates from West Virginia were 
refused seats in the Chicago Convention. 

Let me ask my Democratic hearers whether, if half the people of a State, covering half its 
territory, want to come back into the Union, we must say, "No, you must, wait till those trai- 
tors who have involved us all in war. arc ready to come with you." The people of West 
Virginia wanted to come in. They had a territory nearly as large as half our State, much 
larger than Maryland, and we welcomed them. Thej rejoice in their subjugation, and are 
devoted to Union and freedom. Kentucky had as duly elected members of the lasl House. 
Green, Clay. Smith, William II. Randall, and Julian Anderson, and they voted with me every 
time. If I voted for the twenty-three acts which the gentleman has referred to, 1 did 
company with these three Kentuckians, and the members from Maryland (except my compe- 
titor's friend, Mr. Harris) and the members from West Virginia, and' the majority of members 
from Missouri. 

But I deny that there are any such acts on the statute book. "We passed acts touching the 
negro, but none of the kind described by the gentleman's question. 

We have also conquered Missouri, though the rebels are again threatening her borders 
We have a pretty broad foothold in Arkansas. We have ransacked the residence of Jeff 
Davis, and found there the letter of Franklin Pierce, declaring that if the Smith should secede 
and a war begin, it would not be confined to the South, but would extend to our own 
our own towns, our own villages. You remember that letter, for it has been published 
broadcast. It corresponded with the tenor of Mr. Buchanan's message, and assured the 
Southern States (hat they could go out without fear of resistance. 

Vicksburg is in Mississippi, and we took it with a garrison of thirty-odd thousand men. 
We have a lodgment there that enables us to protect the freedom of the Mississippi for a 
thousand miles. We have opened that river. This and the conquest of ail tic territory 
along either side of that river for that immense distance is a work the like of which was 
never achieved by any nation in a war of less than four years. We hold tic comm 
frontiers of Louisiana, and command the commerce of the Gulf. We can march through 
Florida any day we want to. We are teaching the loyal people on the coasl of South Caro- 
lina and the Sea Islands to read the Lord's Prayer ami the Constitution of the United 8 
to do which they were never permitted before. We hold so much of North Carolina that 
those of her people who resist the rebel conscription, and the deserters from their army can 
rally to the number of seventeen hundred and drive Jell' Davis's minions from their 
Our flag, if we could get it to them, would float over their citadel, ami it will not be long 
give it to them. We hold Norfolk, and have got back the navy yard where were burned many 
of those magnificent vessels which Toucey surrendered to the embryo < !onfederacy. We have 
made the American flag the proudest in the world, and have taught England and' \ ■ 
if we can do so much during a civil war, we shall, when we are ... people, be invil 

against the world united. Our failure is a proud one surely 1 



Speech of Hon. William D. Kelley in the 
Northrop-Kelley Debate. 

DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE SPRING GARDEN INSTITUTE, ON 
THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 29, 1864. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY D. WOLFE BROWN. 



My Fellow-Citizens: I think that the course which this discussion lias thus far taken has 
been very judicious ; that it is much better that, before entering' into the minutiae of the dis- 
cussion, the matters merely personal, we should have examined broadly the history of parties 
as they have been connected with this rebellion, and settled clearly what has been the course 
of the leaders of those parties, those whom they have respectively exalted to high and 
potential stations. I think that we have pretty well determined these questions, as well as 
the relaitons that my competitor and myself respectively have borne, now bear, and will in 
the event of election bear to the great issues of the day and the great interests of the 
American people. You understand now that I am for the war; that J regard it as the only 
way to enduring peace; that I will support it by every word I may utter and every vote i may 
give; that I will not consent to its suspension until those who have arrayed themselves in 
arms against your Government, your rights, and your interests have all laid down their arms 
and acknowledged the supremacy of the Constitution of our country throughout its broad 
limits. You have also learned that my distinguished competitor is the apologist for the 
rebellion; that he finds in the fact that the people of New England will think and will utter 
their thoughts a justification of the rebellion on the part of the Southern people ; that he 
believes that the war has been conducted unconstitutionally, and ought to be arrested, so as 
to give the rebels time to consider whether they will lay down their arms; and that he believes 
I ti ( rovernment has not acted wisely in international affairs, and condemns its course in regard 
to the Monroe doctrine, about which it has not acted at all, and the Trent case. 

His argument touching the Trent, affair did not strike me as possessing the same originality 
with which it may have struck you. I had heard it before. I had the honor of replying to 
it on the floor of Congress, on the Tfh of January, 18G2, when it was uttered by the gentle- 
man's great prototype. Clement L. Vallandigham. of Ohio. He. too. thought that we ought 
to have gone to war with England about the Trent case. He, too, taunted the supporters of 
the Administration with the, fact that Congress had adopted a resolution of thanks to Com- 
modore Wilkes, and that the Secretary of the Navy had written him a letter of qualified com- 
mendation, and yet that the prisoners whom he had arrested had been surrendered. 1 have 
no doubt that my friend put his argument as powerfully as Vallandigham did, I nit, as 1 say. 
it did not impress me so much, because it was not so novel as when 1 heard it from the lips 
of that eminent McClellan Democrat,. I have here a copy of the brief speech which 1 made 
on that occasion, the first of my Congressional efforts, and 1 propose to answer my friend as I 
answered his friend Mr. Vallandigham. On the 7th of January, 1862, 1 said: — 

" I voted in common with the whole House for the thanks to Captain Wilkes. 1 know that 
since then the four persons he captured have been surrendered, yet 1 do not regret that vote. 
It was well cast, and I do not mean to say that, the surrender was not well made. Captain 
Wilkes was an experienced officer of our navy — a service deeply disgraced by a, want of de- 
votion to their country on the part of many of its officers. He saw what he believed to be 
his duty, and he paused not to consider whether it involved personal consequences, but, as 
he understood it, performed that duty; he performed it in a manner creditable alike to his 
head and his heart; firmly, thoroughly, but in a manner marked by humanity and considera- 
tion for the feelings and interests of innocent passengers on board the Trent and the neces- 
sities of an age of steam navigation. Congress, without qualification, indorsed that act. Not 
so with the Administration." (My friend said that, the Administration had approved the 
act.) '' While the Secretary of the Navy approved the act, he admonished the actor that it 
must not be considered a precedent for the surrender of another vessel under like circum- 
stances. The Administration saw that Captain Wilkes's act, of humanity might be taken 
advantage of by such a power as England, and it marked at once its discriminating apprecia- 
tion of the conduct of its officer, and of the nation with which it had to do, by the just quali- 
fication of its approval. As a member of the American Congress I do, from the bottom of 
my heart, thank Captain Wilkes for his gallant and humane conduct. 



"The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vallandigham] seems to be eager for a war with England. 
Sir, war is as dire a calamity as <-;m befall a people. It is the most expensive game at which 
kings can play; the most destructive pursuit in which a people can engage. The figure of a 
candle lighted at both ends affords but an imperfect illustration of the wastefulness of war.'' 

1 closed these remarks on the 7th of January, 1862, when Geo. 1!. McOlellan commanded 
our army, by saying: — ■ 

" I thank the Government that, in the hour of its agony, it stood upon our historical doc- 
trine. I thank it that it honorably avoided war with England ; and 1 pray God thai it may so 
far read the laws of war as to learn that it is the duty of Congress, the Generals at the head 
of the several columns of the army and the Government of the United States, to cut off all 
ih,' resources of the rebels noio in arms against lis. It is the first and last law of war. Its 
thorough enforcement is called for by all the promptings of patriotism and humanity, ami 
promises internal and external peace to our distracted country." 

Now, what was the Trent case? A mail steamer in the British service carried two minis- 
ters of a power that had been recognized by England as a belligerent power — the rebels in 
arms against our government. Commodore Wilkes brought that vessel to ; he found thai it 
had a mail and a very large number of passengers hastening on various duties over the 
ocean. lie took from on board the rebel commissioners and their secretaries, and then let 
the vessel continue its voyage. No good lawyer doubts that, had he detained vessel, passen- 
gers and all, his act would have been strictly legal. But from considerations of humanity to 
the passengers, he permitted the vessel to go its way, taking from it those who were contra- 
band, and whose presence would have justified the seizure and detention of the vessel. By 
so letting the vessel depart he brought the case within the law of search, against which our 
war of 1812 had been waged, and did an act in violation of the precedents of American history. 
Our government knowing that they could not fight the rebellion and England at the same 
time — knowing that to go to war with England would be to cause the division of our country 
and establish on our frontier a hostile confederacy, and further, and more important in this 
connection, that they would be fighting such war with England in the very teeth of the doc- 
trine on which we fought the war of 1812, William II. Seward, Secretary of State, vindicated 
the traditions of our history by saying that he still stood for the freedom of the seas, and 
against the right of search, and that Admiral Wilkes had made a mistake, not in arresting 
the vessel, but in letting it go, and so bringing the case within the condemnation of em- own 
doctrine. Thus the matter was settled. 

My friend would, undoubtedly, have rejoiced — peace man as he is. and opposed as he is to 
the use of bayonets — had we become involved in a war with England, because war with Eng- 
land, whose base of supplies would have been on the Canada side of the lakes, would probably 
have established the Southern Confederacy, for which he has such acute sympathy. You re- 
member how he has poured out floods of sympathy for the Southern people. How he painted 
their desolated fields, their roofless homes, and even went so far as to call our army a band of 
freebooters, and charged them with having stolen the slaves, silver, horses, and other property 
of those towards whom his sympathies flow so exuberantly. He appealed to us in Cod's name, 
to say whether the time had not come when we should pause in our triumphal career, and give 
them time to think. I shall not answer his appeal, but a greater than 1 will. Gen. William T. 
Sherman, who was at the head of a Southern military academy when secession and war were 
determined upon, and who resigned his position because lie owed allegiance to the Constitu- 
tion and flag of his country, has recently had a correspondence with Gen. Hood, of the Con- 
federate army. Gen. Sherman does not agree with my distinguished competitor in consider- 
ing the fact that men of New England will think and will speak their thoughts, a just cause 
for this war. In the first letter to which I shall call your attention, he makes this rejoinder 
to Gen. Hood : — 

" In the name of common sense, I ask you not to appeal to a just God in such a sacrilegious 
manner. You, who in the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation into war, 
'dark and cruel war;' who dared and badgered us to battle; insulted our flag; seized oar 
arsenals and forts that were left in the honorable custody of a peaceful ordnance sergeant ; 
seized and made prisoners of war the very garrisons sent to protect your people asrainst 
negroes and Indians; long before any overt act was committed by the (to you) hateful Cm- 
coin Government; tried to force Kentucky and Missouri into rebellion despite of themselves; 
falsified the vote of Louisiana, turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships, expelled 
Union families by the thousands, burned their homes, and declared, by an act of- your Congress, 
the confiscation of all debts due to Northern men for goods had and received I Talk this to 
the marines, but not to me, who have seen these things, and who will this day make as great 
sacrifice for the peace and honor of the South as the best Southerner anion? you." 

It appears from this that Gen. Hood hates the " Lincoln Government" almost as badly as my 
competitor. But Gen. Hood, finding that he could make no more out of Sherman with his pen 
than he had with his sword, sent the Mayor and Councilman of Atlanta to him, to request 
him not to send the women, old men, and children out of the city. These rebel functionaries 
appealed to Sherman, just as my competitor appealed to you last night. They were defending 
the same bad cause— that of the Southern Confederacy against the North and its people, 



and the flag and Constitution of the country. The identical appeals that were made by those 
Confederate rebels have been made here by my distinguished friend, whose sympathy with 
them is so unbounded. But let Sherman demonstrate this : — 

"Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, in the Field, Atlanta, Sept. 12. 
1864. — James M. Calhoun, Mayor, E. E. Raivson and S. C. Wells, representing City Cmturil 
of Atlanta. Gentlemen : I have your letter of the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke 
my orders removing all the inhabitants from Atlanta. I have read it carefully, and give full 
credit to your statements of the distress that will be occasioned by it, and yet shall not revoke 
my orders, simply because my orders are not designed to meet the humanities of the case, but 
1d prepare for the future struggle in which millions, yea hundreds of millions, of good people 
outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only in Atlanta, but in 
all America. To secure this we must stop the war that now desolates our once happy and 
favored country. To stop war we must defeat the rebel armies that are arrayed against the 
laws and Constitution which all men must respect and obey. To defeat these armies we 
must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments 
which enable us to accomplish our purpose. 

" Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, and that we may have many years of 
military operations from this quarter, and therefore deem it wise and prudent to prepare in 
time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its character as a home 
for families. There will be no manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here for the mainte- 
nance of families, and, sooner or later, want will compel the inhabitants to go. Why not go 
now, when all the arrangements are completed for the transfer, instead of waiting until the 
plunging shot of contending armies will renew the scenes of the past month ? Of course I 
do not apprehend any such thing at this moment, but you do not suppose this army will be 
here till the war is over? I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, because I cannot 
impart to you what I propose to do; but I assert that my military plans make it necessary 
for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to make their exodus 
in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible. You cannot qualify war in harsher terms 
than I will. 

"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war on our country 
deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. 1 know I had no hand in 
making this war, and I know that I will make more sacrifices than any of you to-day to secure 
peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States sub- 
mits to a division now, it will not stop, but will go on till we reap the fate of Mexico, which 
is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its authority wherever it has power; 
if it relaxes one bit of pressure, it is gone, and I know that such is not the national feeling. 
This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit 
the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the National Government, and instead of 
devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become 
at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what 
quarter it may. 1 know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion 
such as has swept the South into rebellion ; but you can point out, so that we may know those 
who desire a Government, and those who insist on war and its desolation. 

"You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as againsl the terrible hardships of 
war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live 
in peace and quiet at home is to stop this war. which can alone be done by admitting that it 
began in error, and is perpetuated in pride. We don't want your negroes, or your horses, or 
your houses, or your land, or anything you have ; but we do want and will have a just obedience 
to the laws of the United States. That we will have; and if it involves the destruction of 
your improvements, we cannot help it. You have heretofore read public sentiment in your 
newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement, and the quicker yon seek for truth in other 
quarters the better for you. 

" 1 repeat, then, that, by the original compact of government, the United States had certain 
rights in (Georgia which have never been relinquished, and never will be: that the South be- 
gun war by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc. etc.. long before Mr. Lincoln 
was installed, and before the South had one jot or tittle of provocation. 1. myself, have seen 
in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women and 
children, fleeing from your armies ami desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In .Mem- 
phis, Vicksburg and Mississippi, we. fed thousands upon thousands of the families of rebel 
soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to 
you, you feel scry different — you deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent 
car loads of soldiers and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, to carry war into Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people, who 
only asked to live in peace at their old homes, and under the Government of their inheritance. 
But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it only can be reached through 
Union and war, and I will ever conduct war purely with a view to perfect an early success. 

" But, my dear sirs, when that peace does come you may call on me for anything. Then 
will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your home and families 



against danger from every quarter. Now, you must go, and take with yon the old and Fe 
feed and nurse them, and build for them in more quiel place,s proper habitations to shield 
them against the weather, until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and 
peace once more to settle on your old homes at Atlanta. 

"Yours, in haste. 

"W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General." 

Does not that letter respond most aptly to the fervid appeal with which my friend closed 
his last address? The traitors who drew that letter from Gen. Sherman must have uttered just 
the appeal by which he attempted to induce you to consent to peace and separation, or peace 
even if it involved separation. 

I am for sustaining Sherman. I am not in favor of an armistice and of giving back to the 
freebooting Confederacy, with which we were threatened, the fifteen guns that Ord took yes- 
terday, or those that Birney may take in his march toward Richmond ; for the news is thai 
Grant has flanked Petersburg, and is again onward to Richmond. Richmond is part of my 
country ; and I want to visit it wheu the star-lit flag again illuminates the dome of its < lapitol. 
Now that we have got the issues involved in the war and coming election fairly stated and 
see that they are identical — now that you know my views and those of my friend as to the set- 
tlement of those issues, the time has come for me to answer his propositions and interroga- 
tories. 

To his first and second propositions he admits that I have replied. To the third. I made a 
partial reply; and at the risk of reiterating some of my remarks. 1 recur to it. it is this: 
'• Whenever any department of government exercises any power beyond or antagonistic to the 
Constitution, it is revolution." I deny the proposition. Worcester defines a revolution to 
be "an extensive change in the political institutions of a country, accomplished in a short time, 
whether by legal or illegal means." Now. a single department of our government may per- 
form an unconstitutional act that only one individual will feel ; and that individual may. as 
I told you the other night, go into court and obtain redress. That would certainly not lie a 
revolution. A President and his Cabinet might adopt a line of policy which a large number 
of men, even a majority of the people, would believe to be unconstitutional; and yet at the 
end of four years from his inauguration, the people could remove him. or they could impeach 
him through the two Houses of Congress, in either event, unconstitutional as his policy 
might be, it would not be a revolution. If the .Southern members had remained in the I touse 
and the Senate, and Abraham Lincoln had done any unconstitutional act, they had the Senate 
so thoroughly, and so clear a working majority in the House, that they could have impeached 
him at any day during his Presidential term. It was only by their withdrawal that his 
friends obtained the control of Congress. As I have already said, our courts were estab- 
lished, and the power of impeachment provided, and elections ordered at brief intervals, to 
furnish certain remedies for any unconstitutional acts. We have, everj two years, an elec- 
tion of Congressmen, and every four years an election of President, so as to enable the people 
to correct any error of that kind. Gen. Jackson removed the deposits from the Bank of the 
United States; and every member of that party of which my competitor was for a Long time 
so distinguished an ornament — the old Whig party — howled that Gen. Jackson had violated 
the Constitution. Henry Clay, Webster, the Southern Whigs, the Western Whigs, all 
opposed that act a.- violative of the Constitution. 1 remember hearing David Crockett, 
George McDuffie, William C. Preston, and nearly a score of other members of that party 
speak at the Philadelphia Exchange, and denounce the unconstitutional acts of Andrew 
Jackson. Who says now that Andrew Jackson revolutionized the government'.'' Will my 
friend say so ? I would like to hear from him on that question. There was a disagreement as 
to what the Constitution meant, and it was executed as understood by those who were in 
power. It belonged to them to execute it. and they must lie governed by their understanding — 
not that of others. Should McClellan be elected, the Democrats will construe il in the future 
"as in the past." That the people did not believe that Andrew Jackson had violated the 
Constitution is shown by the fact that they not only re-elected him. but elected Martin Van 
Buren, his nominee, to succeed him. whose pledge, made in his [naugural, so satisfactory to 
the Democrats of the country, was that he would "tread in the footsteps of his illustrious 
predecessor." 

To the Whigs of those days the acts of Jackson were unconstitutional, as those of Lincoln 
are to my friend and his brother Peace Democrats ; but because the A\" Diu s believed his policy 
to be unconstitutional, was it revolution? Will my friend tell you that it was? So of many 
acts and periods of our history to which I might refer you; but I select a very striking one. 
You can nowhere find in the Constitution (and I challenge my friend to point it out] authority 
given to t he President of the United States to acquire territory without the consent of Congress 
or the people. Yet how did we acquire the Louisiana territory — comprising not only the 
State of Louisiana, but that magnificent territory sweeping northward from the Gulf to the 
Lake of the Woods, embracing in its amplitude Iowa and Minnesota as well as Louisiana and 
Mississippi ? Did the people ever vote in favor of that measure ? Did they elect a Congress 
to adopt it? No ; the President of the United States, without authority, bought it from Prance, 
and agreed to pay $15,000,000 for it. That President was not Abraham Lincoln; nor Wm. 



Henry Harrison; nor cither of the Adamses. He was Thomas Jefferson, the founder and 
father of the Democratic party; and his greatest biographer says that "he violated the Con- 
stitution to save the country," because the occupation of the Louisiana territory by a foreign 
would have involved us in perpetual war. The Government that held that territory had 
the power to control the commerce of the Mississippi. You know how effectually that com- 
merce was stopped when Vicksburg and Port Hudson were in the hands of those whose 
sufferings so touch the tender sympathies of my distinguished competitor. There was that 
river, with its great branches, more than 50,000 miles long, draining an empire that may hold 
five hundred millions of people — one branch, the Ohio, taking its rise in the prolific mountains 
of our own dear Pennsylvania — others rising in each of the Northwestern States — others rising 
in the Southern border-States. More than fifty thousand miles of river, more than thirty 
thousand miles of which have already been navigated by steam, were, or might be, locked 
up by the possession of the Louisiana territory; and Thomas Jefferson, regardless of the 
rest mints of the Constitution, having an opportunity to buy that territory, when Napoleon 
felt that by selling it he would aggrandize the future commercial rival of England, and supply 
himself with " the sinews of war." bought it for the American people ; and so Thomas 
Jefferson became the benefactor of his country and of mankind by transcending the restraints 
of the Constitution. My distinguished friend would have you vote for him that, in Congress, he 
may vote to give the fairest and most important pari of that same territory to a foreign Con- 
federacy, and so again lock up the commerce of the Mississippi Valley and the Northwest ! 
He now, by the terms of his proposition, denounces Jefferson's act as revolutionary. 

I thus deny the gentleman's third proposition, and show that it is preposterous. You 
might as well say that, because one hob-nail has come out of your coarse boot, it is, there- 
fore, no longer a boot. This would be quite as logical as my friend's proposition and argu- 
ment. As Thomas Jefferson saved the country by one act transcending the Constitution, so, 
in time of war, does it become the duty of the President to pursue a similar course, should the 
necessity arise. You have no right to set fire to a man's house, though you be the Mayor of 
the city, or though you be the Chief of the Fire Department, in consultation with the Mayor. 
You have no right to break open a man's door,, and go into his house; but there may arise a 
necessity which will justify you in blowing up the one or breaking into the other 

There is, as Douglas demonstrated, such a thing- as a necessity. You see a house on fire. 
You discover it by the fact that smoke is pouring through several crevices. In the neighbor- 
hood is much inflammable matter — a board-yard, or a large number of frame buildings You 
do not stop to ask who is the owner of the house, and to travel to a neighboring- town or dis- 
tant watering-place to obtain his consent to go in ; but, regardless of the Constitution and the 
laws, you bursl in the door, and enter and extinguish the fire. You take the risk of being 
sued for a violation of the law. Take another case. A large portion of the city is in flames 
in its most compact part. There are no steam fire engines. Your firemen are exhausted; 
your supply of water is giving out. There must be a wide space put between the flames and 
the remaining portion of the city. You have no right to blow up a man's house. There is 
greal probability, but as the wind may change, not absolute certainty, that it will be burned. 
But yon see that there is a probability of it so great that the law will justify you in carrying 
kegs of powder into t lie cellars and blowing up every house in a whole block, or two blocks, 
that you may save the remainder of the city. Not only may the Mayor or the Chief of the 
Fire Department do this, but private citizens. Put with armed scoundrels burning our vil- 
lages as they burned Chambersburg — with armed scoundrel- lighting us on our own soil, as 
they fought us for three days at Gettysburg — my friend protests that he does not like the use 
of bayonets, and thinks that we had better put them aside, for fear that we may violate the 
Constitution and consummate a revolution. If you re-elect me to Congress again, may 
Heaven blast me if 1 vote to put aside the liayonet while one man bares his breast to jt in 
antagonism to our country, its unity. Constitution and flag. 

The next proposition of my friend is that "a successful revolution against the Constitution 
by those in power subverts the principles of our government, produces anarchy, and establishes 
ade: po1 ism." Now. that is a pretty hard proposition to answer, for I cannot discover whether 
it is transcendentalism, metaphysics, or nonsense, and am going to submit the question to 
you. "A successful revolution 'against the Constitution by those in power subverts Hie prin- 
ciples of our government." Why, certainly, a successful revolution overthrows the Constitu- 
tion ; and where do you find the principles of our government if not in the Constitution ? 
That is equivalent to' saying that '-to subvert the government is to subvert the government, 

and to make a revolution is to make a revolution." Thai is all that 1 can make out id' it. 
"A successful revolution against the Constitution by those in power subverts the principles 
of our government," Certainly it does. Who disputes it ? When 1 tell you that for the sun 
to rise is for the sun to go up. 1 do not raise a question for argument between us ; and when 
my friend tells me that "a successful revolution subverts the Constitution," he tells me that 
the sun rises by going up. That is perfectly (dear. 1 admit it. Put then he adds, "produces 
anarchy and establishes a despotism." That is, if a thing is done, when done, it produces two 
conflicting results which cannot coexist. Where there is anarchy, there is not despotism, 
because despotism is the strong hand that suppresses anarchy; and where there is despotism, 



there is no1 anarchy, because there is despotism its antithesis. So 1 admit, first, that a thing 
is a thing, that a revolution is a revolution, thai the subversion of the Constitution is the sub- 
version of the Constitution ; Imt I. deny that it produces the two opposite results, anarchy 
and despotism. This is the answer I make to that proposition; and it' that answer is do1 
satisfactory, I will try it again, if the question is renewed with explanations of its meaning. 

The gentleman's fifth proposition is. that "the theory of the equality of the negro with the 
white man is not a justifiable principle of revolution." I ask my friend whether I state his 
proposition correctly ; I have it as the reporters took it down. [Mr. Northrop assented.] 
Now, for my life, I do not know what a "principle of revolution" is. I referred to the dic- 
tionary this afternoon, in order to ascertain. 1 know that a revolution is a turn, and ! can 
understand that there may be spokes in that which may revolve; 1 can perceive the tire thai 
revolves with a revolution. I can understand a revolutionary principle, a principle the adop- 
tion of which will produce revolution ; and I can understand a cause of revolution ; but, upon 
my word. I cannot understand the phrase "a principle of revolution." If. therefore, I fail to 
answer the proposition, 1 trust it maj be renewed in a more definite form, so 1 hat I may answer 
it. for I wish to do so. and it is only because I am befogged by the phraseology that I do not 
in a way that would be more satisfactory to my friend. But let me, before leaving the subject, 
ask if the gentleman means to say that "the theory of the equality of the negro with the 
white man is not a justifiable niKs, of revolution"? [f he does, 1 agree with him. 1 also 
assert that, under our Government, we can have no justifiable cause of revolution, because 
there are open courts, frequent elections, peaceable moans of amending the Constitution, and 
the right to impeach every officer under the Government. I say, therefore, that nothing can 
give the citizens of this country the right of revolution. To the people under all other 
of government the right of revolution belongs, for they have not access to the courts in which 
laws of their own making- are administered; they have not universal suffrage and frequent 
elections; they have no) the right to impeach their kings, for the doctrine that lies at the 
foundation of royalty is thai the king can do no wrong. Therefore the people under other 
forms of government have the right of revolution. No, neither the desire to promi 
equality, nor the desire to prevent negro equality, is a justifiable cause of revolution. My 
answer, then, to the fifth proposition is, that, if the leman means what he does not say, 

that the theory of negro equality is not a sufficienl can- ■ fi r re 1 olution, 1 agree with him. 

I have thus, as satisfactorily as 1 can, disposed of m\ frii nd's propositions. 1 have meant 
to do it candidly, and I hope I have done it thoroughly. Now come the i 

The first question is, "Are you in favor of the restoration of the Union of these States with 
their rights and powers as they were at the breaking ou1 of this rebellion ?" 

I begin by asking, what States? What States? Is South Carolina still a State in the 
Union? If she is, all that she has to do is to lay down her arms, convene her Legislature, 
elect two Senators, divide the State into Congressional Districts under the last census, and 
authorize her people to elect the number of Representatives to which she is entitled, and send 
them to Congress ; and there will lie an end of the question. If South Carolina and the rest 
of the rebellious States are not States of the Union, how did they gel out ? If they are 

u1 because their people are rebels and traitors, and they musl be broughl back; 
and I am not in favor of bringing all the old Stales back with " their rights and powers as 
they were at the breaking out of the rebellion," and of pledging myself to consent to no other 
method for the reconstruction id' the Union. Treason is the highest crime known to h 
law; and a traitor is the worst of criminals. 1 am not. for instance, in favor id' punishing 
the loyal and patriotic people of West Virginia to gratify the armed traitors of East Virginia. 
1 am not in favor of surrendering Andrew Johnson. Horace Maynard, Parson Brownlow, and 
the patriotic, citizens of East Tennessee to the tender mercies of the rebels in arms in the 
western part of that Stale. \ am in favor of meting out to the traitors such punishmi 
shall give protection to the Southern men, who. in spite of James Buchanan's tin eat and the 
barbarous inhumanity of the rebel leaders, stood true to our country and our flag, and love 
that country and its institution^ as we love them. No. 1 am not in favor of bringing tl 
States back with all their rights as they existed before their people began this war. Shall we 
force Maryland, which has abolished slavery, to re-establish it. Shall we force the people of 
"West Virginia and Missouri to catch the slaves they have liberated and reduce them again 
to bondage? Shall we force them to have slavery whether they will or not '.' Will my friend 
-how how we can do it. and what clause of the Constitution provides for such a c 

I nless we can and will do all this, we cannot possibly restore the Union as it was, en- bring 
the States hack with what my friend considers all their rights. Mr. Jefferson Davis, the 
leader of his political school and party, would tell yon that it was the right of Mississippi to 
have the Union so constructed that the Slave Power would always have a preponderating 
influence in both Houses of Congress. It is the theory my friend has accepted and defends. 
That is his theory, and that was John ('. Calhoun's "theory. With Maryland \'vvi- by the 
choice of her people — with West Virginia free by the choice of her people—with Missouri 
free by the choice of her people — with new States created during these four years — we cannot, 
if we would, establish the Union as it was. I ask the gentleman are you in favor of setting- 
the hand of time back four years ? Have you the power of restoring to life the Pennsylvauiaus 



who have died in defence of the Constitution of your country? Unless yon are in favor of 
doing this, and can show how it may be done, your first question is as preposterous as your 
last proposition. You ask whether I am in favor of doing that which Omnipotence itself 
cannot do. The All-Powerful One may arrest the sun. but he cannot recall the last four 
years, and turn us. who arc uow getting to be old men, back into the vigor of life. 

I am iu favor of establishing a Union of American Slates under the Constitution; and 
whenever the people of Virginia, or any other State, will lay down their arms and present 
themselves with a State Constitution to Congress, I shall be prepared to vote upon the ques- 
tion. The constitution of Virginia is gone. The people met in Convention and abolished it. 
The ligaments that bound them to the United States Government were their Senators, their 
members of Congress, the Judges of the District Court of the United States, their United 
States custom officers, postmasters, aud marshals; and the State of Virginia turned these all 
out. For four years, she has not elected Senators or Representatives to the Congress at 
Washington, but has elected both Senators and Representatives to the Congress at Rich- 
mond. She has expelled from her limits the Judiciary of the United States. Though Abra- 
ham Lincoln, in his inaugural, promised that the mails would he sent there as long as she 
would receive them, she has not permitted the receipt of the United States mails within her 
limits. She has abolished the State of Virginia which Washington helped to form. When 
her people, tired of the war, resume their peaceful avocations, adopt a Constitution provid- 
ing for the election of Senators aud Representatives to the Congress of the United States 
and ask the United States Government again to put her in a judicial district, and to establish 
custom houses and post offices within her limits, I shall be ready to vote to admit her. She 
cannot come back with slavery, not because I say so, but because her people hold no slaves. 
Abraham Lincoln, by his proclamation, has enfranchised the slaves, and called them to our 
banner to sustain our country, on the ensanguined field of battle. I admit here, with the 
gentleman, that it will be a question for the courts of the United States to decide, whetht r 
that proclamation makes them free or not. But in the meanwhile, they are learning to read 
and write ; they are acquiring the habits of freemen ; they are learning to use arms ; and the 
slave that can read and write is more dangerous than the slave that can shoot. It is mental, 
not muscular power, that exalts the slave into the freeman. Our Philadelphia Quakers, in 
organizing schools in Northern Virginia, and at Norfolk, and wherever our victorious armies 
establish a post, are making the re-enslavement of those laboring people an impossibility 
under the providence of God. 

I take up now the gentleman's third question, instead of the second, so that he may reply 
to me this evening. That question is in these words : " Do you approve of the twenty-three 
acts of Congress, each having for its object the declared purpose of giving to tfa 
the rights, immunities, and privileges heretofore enjoyed by the white man only?" 1 answer 
by saying that no such act has been passed. I answer by saying that if such an act had been 
presented to ( 'ongress of the United States it would have been rejected as ridiculously absurd. 
The question as to who shall be citizens belongs to the State, and not to the United States gov- 
ernment. In Massachusetts the negro is a citizen. In Pennsylvania he was a citizen and had 
the right to vote until L838, when in the Convention to amend the Constitution the word "white*' 
was (on motion of Mr. Benjamin Martin, from the first district of Philadelphia) inserted in 
the clause prescribing the qualifications of voters, so as to make it read " every white free- 
man." Our State Constitution does not deny citizenship to the negro, but it restricts the priv- 
ilege of voting to the free white citizens. So the State of New York allows part of her colored 
people to vote, and denies suffrage to the remainder ; that is. every colored man who is a free- 
holder to the amount of $250 has the right to vote. An act of Congress proposing to pre- 
scribe who should vote and who should not vote in any State of the Union, would lie ridiculed 
from the doors of the room of the Judiciary Committee. The man who would introduce into 
Congress such a bill would be laughed at with a universal and loud guffaw; for Congress has 
no more to do with this subject than the British Parliament or the French Senate. 1 therefore 
ask the gentleman to point to any one such act as his question describes, and I will give him 
a couple of minutes of my hour, to enable him to indicate it when he shall have looked over 
his digest and found it. 

[Mr. Northrop followed in a speech of one hour and a half.] 

Judge Kell'V replied thus— A very distinguished clergyman once said. "I can never paint 
i scoundrel in any of my sermons, but, at the close of it, some fool jumps up and says, 
•lie means me.'" Because the supporters of the Administration, in procession, carried a 
banner with the maxim, "A free ballot for loyal men, and a free fight for traitors," the gen- 
tleman and his friends jump up and say. '-that means us; and therefore.'* say they, "These 
Sons of Liberty in Indiana, whose Grand Commander is to command the military forces of all 
the States when in actual service, were organized." Thus they understand the sentiment — -a 
free ballot for the men of the North, and a free fight with the traitors who burned Chambers- 
burg and fought us at Gettysburg. Must the gentleman and his friends assume that they are 
aimed at whenever the word " traitor" is uttered .' 

I have a little cause to complain of the gentleman, that he will not listen to me. The other 
evening he denied that I had answered his third proposition, or said anything about it; yet 



the report made by the gentleman who sits at the table has shown that 1 had answered it 
somewhat elaborately. He says now thai i said 1 had looked at the dictionary to find that a 
devolution means the turn of a wheel. I treated his propi b m ped than that. 

I said that Worcester defined a political revolution as "an extensive change in the political 
organization of a country, accomplished in a short time, whether by legal it by illegal means." 
1 read that definition which contains nothing about a wheel. I did not say that I had derived 
the idea, of a wheel from a dictionary. I spoke of seeing a tire make a revolution with the 
wheel that it bound together. 

These are but trivial complaints — not half so grave as those which we have sometimes 
made against each other at the liar, when we have parted good friends, or left the Coma i < m 
to eat a steak together. Our differences arc all political. 

I again recur to the gentleman's interrogatory which 1 was discussing when I took my t, 
and which he has undertaken to vindicate by an appeal to a law book. That interrogatory is 
in these words: "Do you approve of any or all of the twenty-three acts of Congress, each 
having for its object the declared purpose of giving to the negro nil the rights, in 
and privileges which have hitherto been enjoyed by the white man only?" The propi 
does not state that those acts give to the negro some of the immunities and privileges of the 
white man, as my friend has argued. It states as a fact that Congress lias passed twenty- 
three acts, each of which has for its declared purpose the giving to the negro "all the rights, 
privileges, and immunities hitherto enjoyed by the white man only." I renew my challenge 
to the gentleman to point to one such act. I say boldly that he cannot do so. Cor none such 
exists ; and 1 say that the assertion contained in that question is utterly incorrect, and with- 
out foundation. There is the statute-book; let the gentleman point to the first of them. 

The gentleman referred to three acts, and, in God's name, I ask him whether he objects to 
any one of them. The rebel masters of more than a million of slaves have run away and left 
them in the ignorance and poverty to which their inhumanity had doomed them. The man, 
woman, or child who had under their infernal code attempted to teach one of the slaves to 
read the Lord's Prayer would have been liable, in every one of the slave States, to imprison- 
ment as a felon. They have never been allowed to own a dollar's worth of property. Without 
knowing one letter or figure from another, without having a change of clothing, having been 
trained by their masters to the most menial occupations only, they are turned adrift apon the 
world by the war made by the rebels upon the best government with which God ever blessed 
man. And in proof of the fact that there are twenty-three acts of Congress giving t< 
negro all the rights which the white man has heretofore possessed, the gentleman points to an 
act incorporating a body of white men and women into an association for the relief of destitute 
women and children! Good God! is it a crime to relieve the sons and daughter 
owners, because they were not born in wedlock and were begotten of black women? Is it a 
crime before God or man, in this America of ours, to charter benevolent people to take (-are 
of poor old women and children, aud is that investing the negro with " all the rights, privil 
and immunities heretofore enjoyed by the white man only"? Where, where, sir [addn 
Mr. Northrop], is that Christianity to which you have so often appealed — the religion of the 
Prince of Peace, of whom you have spoken? Where dwells his influence in your heart, when 
you can censure those who, finding destitute, ignorant, stricken women and children. Friendless, 
homeless, and without a guide, charter a few good people to care for them in their misery and 
give them guidance for the future? I did vote for that act ; and may God grant that you and 
your party may not have the power to repeal it, and cast those stricken ones again upon the 
world ! 

The second act to which the gentleman referred, was to incorporate an association to edu- 
cate colored youth! As I heard the gentleman denounce that act. I remembered a visil which 
I once made to your county prison, when 1 was. by virtue of my position, an official visitor. 
I was accompanied by three ladies, one of whom was Mrs. Tyndale, then the chief of the 
china store in Chestnut street, above seventh. When we stood before one of the cell doors, 
a large negro came to it, who, after looking at tin' ladies, turned on me and said : " Mr. K el- 
ley, you oughtn't to have convicted me for stealing that coat. I didn't steal it." " Yes, you 
did." replied I, " or the jury would not have convicted you." "No, sir." he answered, •• I 
didn't steal that coat." "Well," said 1. " satisfy me of that, and I will appeal to Covernor 
Shunk, and get you a pardon." For 1 then held office under that Democratic Governor, and 
enjoyed his confidence. We were both staunch Wilmot Proviso men. and in favor of re- 
stricting slavery within its Constitutional limits. The Democratic party had not yet fallen 
down before the false god of human slavery, a system of labor without wages. " I don't want 
to be pardoned," said "the negro. " Why, have yon no wife ?" asked Mrs. Tyndale. " Yes, 
ma'm, 1 have a wife." "Have you children?"* " Yes. ma'm, two ; and I love my wife and 
children just as well as Mr. Kelley loves his." " How long have you to stay here ?" " Nine 
months more, ma'm." "And yet you don't want a pardon^ I cannot understand it." " No. 
ma'm, I don't want a pardon, and I will show you why." He ran across his cell, and picking 
up a blue-covered book of about twenty-four pages, he brought it to the door of his cell. 
"There, ma'm," said he, is the reason why T don't want to go out. When I come in here, I 
didn't know one letter from another; and now I can read all the way through that book, 



every word of it ; I can read a newspaper when a. gemman gives me one. To-day, Mr. Wool- 
ston (the moral instructor) is going- to bring me a new book. In nine months more I can 
write and cipher some ; and when I go out I can read the names on the signs, and I can read 
what is on the letters and bundles, and I can make an honest living for my wife and children 
as a porter. I couldn't do that before, because I just come out of slavery, and didn't know 
one letter." Then turning to me with a smile that made the negro's face almost beautiful, he 
said, "Mr. Kelley, I did steal that coat ; but with reading and writing, and being able to earn 
an honest living, I trust to God I'll never steal another coat." 

Yel the gentleman has denounced us for having incorporated an association of white men 
to educate colored youth ! I ask the gentleman whether we were not blessing our country by 
aiding to give the simple power of elementary knowledge to four millions of our people, or so 
many of them as might come within the influence of such associations. Is ignorance a blessing 
to our country? If it is, my Democratic laboring man. why do you send your children to 
school? Are the ignorant and the depraved and those who are shut out from intellectual 
enjoyments and employment good citizens? Is it not such, whether white or black, that 
swarm into your alms-houses and jails? Were we not. then, when we incorporated an 
association to educate the poor youth of the District of Columbia, doing a service to civiliza- 
tion and exalting the character of the American people? If you want a black servant, is it 
not better that he should be aide to read and write, that he may carry your parcels correctly — 
that lie may, as that poor fellow in jail said: "Read the signs over the doors and upon the 
street corner- ':" Yet an act by which white men are authorized to teach colored boys to read 
is denounced by the gentleman as one of the Lincoln outrages upon the Constitution. 

My friend referred to a third act — and when he got to that he staggered. Devoted as he i< 
to his party, he said to himself, "My God ! this won't do, this is proclaiming our inhumanity 
too plainly," and shut up the book and left the other twenty acts behind. The third act to 
which he objected was " An act to incorporate the St. Ann's Infant Society.'' If the gentle- 
man and his party get into power, I suppose they will let the infants die in the street and the 
gutter, and not allow thein to go into the institution of the St. Ann's Society, where they may 
be cared for. 

These are the three horribly criminal enactments which the gentleman recites to prove that 
we have passed twenty-three acts designed to confer on the negro "all the rights, privileges, 
and immunities hitherto enjoyed by the white man only." Oh, my houest Democratic friend, 
let me tell you this is the way in which your leaders are deceiving and humbugging you. They 
attempt to make you believe that when we speak of the traitors of the South, we mean you ; 
that when we make provision for orphan and destitute infancy and childhood, we are trying 
to reduce you to an equality with the Soul hern slave. Think of these things, think of them 
prayerfully. Reason with yourselves as to what is your duty to your country and to mankind. 
Remember that in the veins of these poor negroes flows the very best blood of the while men 
of the South. Remember that 81 per cent, of I jroes of Louisiana have while blood 

in their veins. Remember that 7^ per cent, of the free negroes of Alabama have white blood 
in their veins. Remember that more than one out of every ten of the four million Southern 
slave- has had a white father, if not a white grandfather. The Yankees from New England 
have not gone down there to spend a night in injecting that white blood into their veins. It 
has been the slaveholder, and the overseer, and the distinguished Democratic visitor to the 
head of the plantation that have done it. Remember that that eminent Virginia Democrat, 
but whilom leader of the New York Democracy, John A. Andrews, who seconded Seymour's 
motion to his •• friends" in the midst of the riot. was. when arrested by the officers of the law, 
to lie conveyed to fort Lafayette, wrenched from the embrace of a negro woman with whom 
he was living, while his white wife and their children, abandoned by him. lived elsewhere. 

My friend's question which 1 was considering was this: " Do you approve of any or all of 
the twenty-three acts id' Congress, each having for its object the declared purpose of giving 
to the negro all the rights, immunities, ami privileges which have heretofore been enjoyed by 
the white man only?'' 1 say to him again, show me the first act of the kind described, or 
withdraw your assertion. Admit your mistake, or let me prove it. I voted for every act that 
the Lincoln party passed, and if you can show one of them that goes as far as you allege, 
hold me responsible lor it. 1 went to Congress determined to sustain the government, and I 
voted for every act that a majority of its friends adopted; and in so far I am responsible for 
all those acts which go to ameliorate the condition of the negroes, abandoned by their mas- 
ters, and all those who, under our flag, are helping us whip the rebels who involved as in war 
by invading our country. There are 200,000 stalwart negroes fighting our battles. I voted 
to enlisl them: I voted to equip them; I voted to pay them; and I do not see now, my fellow 
citizens, that it is not better for each of you that those colored men should be there fighting 
than that you should be. I do not see why you, young man. should be dragged from your 
home, your profitable employment, and the girl of your heart, to save the rebel's slave from 
death. 1 do not see, father, why you should surrender your son, when there is a stalwart 
negro, now digging and ploughing for the rebellion, who is willing to take his musket and 
fight to save your son's life and our country. Yes, I voted to put the negroes under arms; I 
voted to pay and clothe them. I voted for orphans' asylums and for infants' homes, and for 



schools for youth, thai history might not point at us us a nation who had used a race of men 
to light our battles, and permitted their neglected wives and children to starve or freeze to 
death upon the public highway. 

The second question is in these words: " Do you regard as constitutional, and do you ap- 
prove of, the exercise of the military and civil power of the Federal Government, to create 
and establish new States out of parts of the old ones [" 

The military power has never been so used. The military power has never been so at- 
tempted to be used. When the people of any large body of territory— large enough for a 
State, and having on it sufficient population for a State— determine to come back into the 
Uuion, I do believe in allowing them to organize a State government, to elecl United States 
Senators and Eepresentatives in the usual mode; and if there should come before the next 
Congress a State made up of a part of Smith Carolina, a part of Georgia, a purl of North 
Carolina, and if it were possible, a part of Virginia, embracing territory upon which there 
were half a million of people living, who had succeeded in establishing their freedom from the 
rebellion, as the people of West Virginia have done — if such a body of people thus situated 
should come and ask us to accept them as a State and accept their constitution as a constitu- 
tion, I would vote for the admission of that State. I would not say to the people who lived 
in that part of South Carolina. " No. you must go back and enjoy the tender mercies of your 
old masters, the tyrants of South Carolina." I would not say to the people of the other 
States, " No, we won't take you until you can coax all the rebels to come in." 1 am for re- 
constructing just as rapidly as possible, until we gel the whole territory that belongs to us 
covered by States — States made up of loyal men, who will stand by the flag, the Constitution 
and the unity of the country ; ami 1 will not, to gratify a few aristocratic South Carolinians, 
or Virginians, or Mississippians, say to five hundred thousand loyal people, " No; you are the 
slaves of those rebels ; and for fear of offending them we will not recognize you." I will not 
do it, sir, and I do not believe that the people of the Fourth District would approve of the 
act of their representative who might do it. 

1 am for reconstruction by the free volition of the people, and I care not whether they 
maintain old State lines or make new ones; whenever the people want to come back, lay down 
their arms, organize a State Government, adopl a Constitution, elect Senators and Repre- 
sentatives to the Congress of the United States, invite us to send our custom system and our 
postal system into their territory, I am in favor of readmitting them; and God send that at 
the next session all of them may come back in that way! And if Grant goes on as he has 
been doing, if Sheridan goes on as he has been doing, if Sherman goes on as in the letter I 
have read to-night he declares his purpose to do, I believe, so help me Cod. that before the 
next session of Congress rises more than half of the rebel territory will be organizing for 
peaceful reconstruction. The only hope that is sustaining the rebels is a pledge that, if 
Mc< 'lellan be elected, they are to have, for a period of months or a year, what M cClellan gave 
Lee's army at Antietam — an armistice. When the sun went down, Lee was whipped, and in 
a position from which he could not escape. Fitz John Porter's corps of thirty thousand men 
had not tired a gun; their ammunition was intact; no one of them was wearied by a day's 
fighting; and had that corps been brought into action, Lee's whole army must have surren- 
dered. Hut the General at the head of our forces gave them an armistice for twenty-four 
hours ; and when he came to look for them at the end of that time, they were like that flea 
of which my friend spoke — they were 1 not there. They had gone. Yes, the only hope that 
the rebels have sustaining them in this hour of trial is that McClellan may be elected, that 
his partisans may be elected to Congress in October, and that then, as the leaders promised 
Lord Lyons more than two years ago, there will be an armistice, which is equivalent to the 
recognition of the independence of the Southern Confederacy. 

Under certain circumstances. I say. I do approve of the exercise of the civil power of the 
Federal Government to admit into the Union States established by the people ou1 of pari of 
the territory of any one State, or pari of the territory of several States. The military power 
has never attempted to organize a State, and I therefore protest against the clause of the 
question that contains such an assertion. 

The fourth question is in these words: "Are you prepared to declare yourself in favor of 
the military power as superior to the civil power, on the plea of military or any other ne- 
cessity ?" 

I have already answered that question very fully. I am unwilling, except in cases of qi 
sity, to supplant the civil by the military power. Where the civil power is adequate to 
meet the difficulty, I am in favor of meeting the difficulty by the civil power. But 1 remem- 
ber that Washington suspended the civil power over and over and over again. I remember 
that, by his authority, many of the most distinguished people of Philadelphia were sent 
seventy miles into the interior (not by railroad), because they were believed to be in sympathy 
with Great Britain. Washington suspended the habeas corpus, and suspended civil rights 
time and time and time again ; and he expelled from Philadelphia, sending them seventy miles 
into the interior, the grandfathers of some of the leading Peace Democrats of to-day, hecause 
tiny were peace men in that day. and wanted to go back into subjection to the British 
Government. Jackson, as I have shown you, suspended the civil power. Douglas defended 



that act, and I will make no argument in its defence. I will simply urge you to read the 
thrilling sentences of Douglas in the remarks which ! addressed to you. the other night, and 
which are now in pamphlet. There has never been a patriot in a country involved in war, 
who did not believe that, under " necessity." the civil power must at times be suspended. 

The gentleman did not give me any additional light on his proposition in reference to " re- 
volution." He says that resistance to the Government is revolution. I tell him that resist- 
ance to the Government is rebellion, and it never becomes revolution until the Government is 
overturned. Revolution means going round ; and, until a rebellion is successful, it is rebellion, 
and not revolution. 

" Treason never prospers. What's the reason ? 
Whene'er it prospers, none dare call it treason." 

When it prospers it is revolution ; and, until it does prosper, it is rebellion. With a rebellion 
we are fighting; and that rebellion, if we want peace, honorable and lasting peace, we must 
crush. 



Speech of Hon. Wm. D. Kelley, in the Northrop- 

Kelley Debate. 

. DELIVERED AT MANAYUNK, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 3, 1864 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY D. WOLFE BROWN. 



Fellow-citizens: We have had, as my friend lias said, four evenings of discussion elsewhere. 
I have not had, nor shall T during the debate, have occasion in give assurance to my aud 
that I am not apologizing for the Southern rebellion, as my friend has once or twice assured 
you. You will not so misapprehend my arguments as to suppose that they are uttered in 
advocacy of the rebellion. 1 shall apologize for no unconstitutional act of the rebels. I 
shall, so far as in roe lies, vindicate the supreme majesty of the Constitution of our country. 
I shall demand the maintenance of the nation's unity from the Aroostook to the Rio 
Norte, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I am for peace throughout the country — an 
honorable peace — an enduring peace — such a peace as can only be had when we shall have 
whipped Jeff. Davis and his minions, so that they shall lay down their arms and cry, as the 
Democrats of the North now do, for peace on any terms. And when we shall have done this, 
we will not only have peace in the country, but peace that will endure through all time; for 
ambitions men will then remember the fate of the rebels of 1861. "We shall also have ; 
with foreign nations; for they will appreciate the convincinir evidence of our power when we 
shall have conquered twelve millions of people, living upon their own soil, with a sea-coast 
more than two thousand miles in extent, in a war which they began when we were without an 
army, ours having been handed over by the Democratic administration to ear enemies— with- 
out a navy, twenty-seven of our largest and best ships having been handed over to cur ene- 
mies, by that same Democratic Administration, and the remaining vessels, all but the four 
smallest, having been sent to the most distant stations to which our naval vessels are ever 
sent; and without national credit, but with a bankrupt treasury. For during the last year of 
James Buchanan's Administration, it became necessary to borrow live millions of dollars to 
carry on the Government until the fourth of March. We had a little while before been pay- 
ing our debt at a premium. We had been offering every bondholder twenty per cent, to allow 
us to cash his bond. Our country had been so prosperous that gold had flowed into our 
treasury beyond our ability to expend in constitutional a%d legal methods. Financiers and 
statesmen feared a commercial crisis as the result of the immense and increasing accumula- 
tion of gold in our treasury ; and the Government, to prevent this, had offered a premium of 
twenty per cent, to every man who would bring forward his bond and have it cashed in gold. 
Yet, in less than one little year from that time, under Democratic rule, our treasury was ex- 
hausted, and it became necessary to borrow five millions of dollars to carry on the Govern- 
ment to the end of the term of that administration. Howell Cobb, the Democratic Secretary 
of the Treasury, advertised for a loan of that amount. Did he offer four per cent, interesl on 
the loan? Ours is the most magnificent country God has over given to any people. We 
had paid the Revolutionary War debt ; we had paid the debt of the late war: we had bei n 
giving the people a premium to bring in the Mexican War debt, and have it paid. With all 
our resources, and with the credit that might have been expected as the consequence of the 
fact 1 hat we were the only nation of the world that had ever paid off its debt, did the Secretary 
of the Treasury offer four per cent, interest? Did he offer five per cent ? For we had often 
borrowed money at both these rates? Or did he offer six per cent., the common rate of in- 
terest with us? No, my fellow citizens. In order to get money to pay his own salary, he 
offered to pay twelve per cent, interest for a loan of five millions of dollars. And how was 
it responded to? Did European capitalists take it all? Did Chestnut and Third streets ami 
our banks monopolize it? Or did Wall street or State street step in and cut them out ? No; 
every one of you remembers that we could not borrow the five millions from ourselves or the 
world at twelve per cent. There is not a business man here who does not know that the 
Democratic party in its last four years had so wrecked our credit that at the high rate of one 
per cent, a month the world would lend the United States Government hut two millions and a 
half of dollars. Beginning this war, I repeat, with our army in the hands of the enemy; with 
our navy beyond our reach, or delivered to the enemy; with our Treasury bankrupt ; with our 
credit destroyed, we have created an army and a navy; we have re-established our credit, so 
that when the Government the other day advertised for a loan of thirty-one millions of dollars, 



sixty-five millions were offered, and the Government obtained the whole amount required 
at a premium of four per cent. People, even in the midst of our great war, have such confi- 
dence in the Administration, that they are willing to give $104 for a hundred-dollar certificate 
of United States Loan. We have blockaded two thousand miles of sea-coast. We have con- 
quered mure territory than any other nation ever conquered in a Avar of ten years. And when 
we shall have finally conquered peace, the nations of the world will note what we have done, 
and say, " We must let those people of the United States alone." So that, when we attain the 
peace that 1 want, we shall have a peace which will be as enduring as our mountains, lakes, 
and rivers. I am for war as the only road to peace — war so long as an armed rebel desecrates 
our laud. I have, on a previous occasion, ladies, come into this town of industry, to beg your 
husbands and sons to go to the field and fight for our common country, its Constitution and 
its flag: and God forbid that, having encouraged them to engage in this glorious work, I 
should be willing to surrender their graves to a foreign nation, so that in the hereafter their 
children would be obliged to crawl to them uuder a foreign flag. No ! as God is my judge, I 
will, if the power be given me, support the prosecution of this war until every grave of a 
Pennsylvania soldier, whether it be in Louisiana, or in Texas, or upon the borders of our own 
State, shall be recognized as within the limits of the country of his children, and lie protected 
and illuminated by the stars of their country's flag. No, I never will consent to sell the 
graves of your husbands and sons for a dastardly peace. 

The gentleman told you that he has argued certain propositions, one of which is to the 
effect that a violation of the Constitution by a department of the Government is revolution. 
Then he went on to say that Mr. Lincoln has some how or other violated the Constitution. 
He has not, however, on any of the five evenings on which he has spoken, ventured to show 
the particular act by which it had been violated. I hope that he will be more generous here, 
and in his concluding remarks point out the violations of which he complains. He 
enunciates the proposition to which I have referred in the name of the Democratic party. I 
have broughl with me a volume of the writings of the founder of that party, Thomas Jeffer- 
son, to show that he, with his eyes wide open, well knowing the fact, deliberately violated the 
Constitution to save the country from future war. and that he asserts that such acts must be 
done by the Executive at times. The gentleman would surrender to our enemies all the 
country lying south of the Potomac, and would then try to coax the traitors who have in- 
volved us irfthiswar to reconstruct a Union. He would first surrender to them, and then 
say, '-Well, now, what will you take to reconstruct?" Does not the gentleman know that 
before they undertook to divide the country, they said, " Give us a blank sheet of paper agree- 
ing that we may write the terms on which we will remain with you, and we will not accept 
yo*ur proposition." They spurn you and me. They spurn you, laboring men of the North, 
as the ■•mudsills" of society— as "greasy mechanics"— as people more abject than their 
slaves. They have said all this in Congress. And they want to get rid of all connection with 
men like myself who have passed from the workshop to the floor of Congress, and like you 
who hope in your own persons, or in those of your sons, to rise in the social, political, or 
pecuniary scale of life. And they who thus hate us and denounce us as " mudsills" and 
"greasy mechanics," and who insolently told us that if we would let them write their own 
terms they would not consent to live with us — the gentleman would coax hack, after we shall 
have surrendered to them at discretion and recognized their independence. 

It was to acquire pari of the territory my friend would thus surrender, that Thomas Jeffer- 
son violated the Constitution. 1 speak of what was known as the Louisiana territory. I 
have here the fourth volume of Jefferson's Complete Works, from which 1 will read you a 
brief extract from a letter written by Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky— not 
him who. as a leader of the Southern wing of the Democratic party, is now at the head of a 
division of the rebel arm v who, finding that he could not beat us by voting, is trying to do 
it by fighting. Bad luck' he lias had at that business in the Shenandoah Valley. I tell you ! 

On page 498 will be found the following: — 

" Momicki.i.o, Aug. 12, 1803.— Peak Sib : The inclosed letter, though directed to you, was 
intended to me also, and was left open with a request that, when read, 1 would forward it to 
you. It gives me occasion to write a word to you on the subject of Louisiana, which, being 
a new one. an interchange of sentiments may produce correct ideas before we are to act on 

them. 

'•Our information as to the country is very incomplete. We have taken measures to obtain 
it full to the settled part, which 1 hope to receive in lime for Congress. The boundaries which 
1 deem not admitting question, are the high lauds on the western side of the Mississippi, 
incloshi" all its waters, the Missouri of coarse, and terminating in the line drawn from the 
northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, to the nearest source of the Mississippi, as 
lately settled between Great Britain and the United Stab: s. We have some claims to extend 
on the sea coast westwardly to the Rio Norte or Bravo, cud better, to go eastwardly to the 
Rio Perdido, between Mobile and Pensacola, the ancient boundary of Louisiana. These 
claims will be a subject of negotiation with Spain, and if, as soou as she is at war. we push 
them strongly with one hand, holding out a price in the other, we shall certainly obtain the 
Floridas, and all in good time." 



Now, you have an idea of the territory in question. On page 500 he goes on to say : — 

"The Constitution has made no provision for our holding fori ign territory, still less for in- 
corporating foreign nations into our Union. The Executive, in seizing the fugitive occur- 
rence which so much advances the good of their country, hav id the Con- 
stitution. The Legislature, in casting behind them metaphysical subtleties ani them- 
selves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay for it. and throw themselves on their country 
for doing for them unauthorized what we know they would have done for themselves, had 
been in a situation to do it. It is the case of a guardian investing the money of his ward in 
purchasing an important adjacent territory; and saying to him, when of age, "1 did this for 
your good ; I pretend to no right to bind you ; you may disavow me. and .1 must get out of 
the scrape as I can; I thought it my duty to risk myself for you.' Bui we shall not be dis- 
avowed by the nation, and their act of indemnity will confirm and not weaken the Constitu- 
tion, by more strongly marking out its lines." 

I quote Thomas Jefferson's deliberate letter to prove that tin 1 greal founder id' the Demo- 
cratic party whose word to-day goes farther with it. oral least with honest Democrats — 1 will 
not say with the party, for its leaders and managers have abandoned all its doctrines -than 
the word of any other man to show that he knew he was violating the Constitution when he 
acquired Louisiana territory; but he knew also that he was saving the future peace of the 
country. Through the Louisiana territory flowed the Mississippi river, which, with its branches, 
extends more than 50,000 miles, one of these branches taking its rise in our own Slate. It, 
drains the whole valley of the Mississippi. At that day there were no railroads; and that 
greal valley, capable of supporting with comfort 300,000.000 of people, had no other outlet, 
no other means of commercial connection with the world than that river. While a foreign 
power held command of that river it could cripple this vast country and drive us to Mar at. 
any time by doing what the Democratic party of the South have done— erecting fort-; along 
its banks at Vicksburg, Fort Hudson, and elsewhere, and arresting the whole commei 
the Northwest. It was. therefore, necessary to the permanent peace and prosperity of the 
country that this territory should be acquired ; and Thomas Jefferson, transcending the 
powers of the Constitution, and acting in conflict with it. acquired it. You will also find by 
the remarks which 1 made on the second evening of this discussion, which have been printed, 
and I trust distributed among you, that Abraham Lincoln, though conducting a war (<i' infi- 
nitely greater magnitude, has done nothing that Andrew Jackson did not do during the war 
of 1812; and that by vindicating the constitutionality of Jackson's acts. Stephen A. Dou- 
glas made himself the leader of the Northern Democracy. 1 pass now to the general subjed of 
discussion, ami you will find that before I conclude, I will notice, though not in detail, all the 
gentleman has said to-night. 

What is this war about, and between whom is it? It is about the question whether man 
shall have wages for his labor. It is not between political parties. In the early days of our 
country there was a powerful anti-slavery party in the South. Washington was an anti-slavery 
man, and by his last will emancipated every slave that belonged to him. In his correspondence 
with American and foreign citizens he continually expressed the hope that the institution of 
slavery would be abolished at an early day. Thomas Jefferson was an anti-slavery man. and 
said, among many other such things, that, in view of the wrongs of the slaves, "he trembled 
for his country when he remembered that. Cod was just.*' dames .Madison was an anti-slavery 
man, and when it was proposed to insert the word " slave" in the Constitution, he substituted 
the phrase "persons held to service or labor;'' and his argument was that slavery was -eon 
to pass away under the enlightened civilization of our country, and that the word ••slave" 
ought not to be inserted in our Constitution to remind our posterity that so odious an insti- 
tution had ever existed in our country. The leading men of Virginia at that time were anti- 
slavery men. Some of the most eloquent utterances made in the Convention that framed the 
Constitution came from slaveholders, speaking in opposition to the institution of slavery: but, 
by the invention of the cotton-gin ami the larger use of cotton, slavery became more profitable, 
and the great men of the South were succeeded by a. generation who were inferior to them, 
and who forgot their precepts and the Declaration of Independence, which my friend seems 
to despise and dread so much, but which I hold, next to my Bible, as the creed of an American 
citizen. Forgetting the teachings of those great men and of that great document, they l>ecame 
the propagandists of slavery. 

In 1847, as I have stated at former meetings, Mr. Calhoun, as the organ of modern Southern 
sentiment, introduced into the Senate of the United States resolutions contemplating the 
nationalizing of slavery ami the forcing of it upon the free States. His resolutions were 
tabled. Mr. Yancey, Calhoun's ablest disciple, at the Democratic Convention held in Balti- 
more in 1852, introduced a resolution contemplating the same end, viz., the nationalizing of 
slavery; and though every Congressional district in the Southern Stales was represented in 
the Convention, the resolution received but 36 votes. But onward and onward and onward 
proceeded this movement for the extension of slavery. A system of terrorism was established 
and practised till the whole South was made pro-slavery, and we in the North seemed to find 
nothing but slavery in our politics, and were taught by mob violence that it was a crime to 
speak against it. 



Thus yon see this war is not between parties, for at the time it broke out. or for ten years 
before, there was no anti-slavery party in the South. There had been none permitted there. 
If a man did not profess to believe in slavery, the supporters of that institution drove him 
out. Did they not send John C. Underwood' from the home of his ancestors in Virginia 
because he was a free-soil man? Did they not expel from Kentucky John G. Fee and the 
whole of the little town of pious people to whom he ministered, because they were opposed 
to slavery? When that poor Irish stonemason Power, while working on the capitol in Co- 
lumbia, South Carolina, said that every man ought to be paid for his work, did they not tie 
him to a cart, put a huge slave on each side of him with a whip, and whip him till the blood 
trickled from his neck to his heels? And did they not then coat him with tar and sand, and 
shave his head, and send him North? He was a Democrat who had resided in the First Con- 
ional District of Philadelphia, and voted for Thomas B. Florence and James Buchanan ; 
but that did not save him when he uttered in a slave State the theory that every man who 
works is entitled to wages. Have you not read the stories of the manner in which delicate 
women from the North, tempted to the South to pursue the avocation of teachers, have been 
scourged, because there had been found among their papers letters expressing anti-slavery 
sentiments, or copies of the Independent or some other Northern paper containing something 
against slavery? You know that there was no anti-slavery party in the South. 

The gentleman talks about the suspension of the habeas corpus and the violation of the 
rights of the individual. Why, if. during the last eight years of Democratic rule, he had gone 
into any slave community of the South and said, " J believe in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence; 1 believe that all men are born free; and have certain inalienable rights, among 
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," what would have occurred? Would 
there have been an argument? No; there would have been a hanging. He might have 
protested that he was a Democrat; that he would not use such language to the slaves, but 
would simply argue the epiestion among gentlemen, and it would have availed him nothing. 
They would have hung him, and would have done it deliberately. 

This is not, then, 1 repeat, a war between political parties. Nor is it a war between States. 
For there were certain parts of the Southern States where slavery did not thrive. It does not 
thrive among the mountains, it does not thrive in a region where hands cannot be worked in 
gangs. It is upon the broad savannah, in the rice, the cotton, the tobacco, and the sugar 
field that slavery thrives. Parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee are mountainous and 
bill of coal and iron. At the breaking out of this rebellion, the lower, flat, rich eastern part 
of Maryland was for the rebellion; ami the soldiers of Massachusetts were shot in the streets 
of Baltimore by rebels and secessionists. The western part of that State was at that very 
time as true to the Union as it is to-day, and elected Governor Frank Thomas, a Union man, 
to Congress by an almost unanimous vote. 

Von know the story of Fast Tennessee better than I can tell it. You know the story of 
Andrew Johnson. Parson Brownlow, Horace Maynard, and the other devoted Union men of 
thai section. You know how long Brownlow lingered in a felon's cell for adhering to the 
Union. You know how men were hung to their own roof-trees — murdered in the presence of 
their pleading wives and daughters, and how yet they clung to the constitution, the country, 
and the flag. You know, too, that in West Virginia the people adhered to the Union. 

And here let me tell you part of what .1 meant when I said that it was impossible to bring 
the States back with all their old rights. The people of West Virginia have made a free 
State. They have come to Congress, and asked to be admitted into the Union, and have been 
admitted, and they have abolished slavery. There is not one of you who would say that it 
was wrong to admit a State with territory twice as Large as Maryland, and with a population 
sufficient to .-end three members to Congress: that it was wrong to readmit them into the 
Union, because the slave-owning traitors of Easl Virginia did not want them to he admitted. 
V\ ha1 ! shall we punish loyal men and keep them out of their rights, until the Las1 rebel shall 
to US, •' We are content ; yon may take them back ?" 1 am for punishing treason and 
rewarding loyally. 1 want every man throughout the South to see that, if he is a traitor, he 
the risk of death, and that, if he stands by the country or submits to its power, the 
country will protect him in all his right-. 

This free State of West Virginia, the gentleman, under his theory, would extinguish. The 
Democratic leaders at Chicago would not admit the delegates from that State into their Con- 
vention. Those delegates presented themselves to that Convention because there are 
Democrats even in West Virginia. There are some fools to he found in every community ; 
and though the people of that Slate have been scourged almost to death, there were some 
men there who were willing to go to the Democratic Convention. They were, however, 

kicked away from the door, as though they had been " niggers." because were the ( 'olivention 

to acknowledge Wesl Virginia as a State! it might offend Gen. Robert E. Lee and other dis- 
tinguished Virginia rebels. 

This is not, then, a war between States, because those three States divided— Western 
Maryland for the Union, Pastern Maryland for the Confederacy; Pastern Tennessee for the 
Uuion. Western Tennessee for the Confederacy; Pastern Virginia for the Confederacy, 
Western Virginia for the Union. If then it is not a conflict between parties ; is not a con- 



flict between States, between whom or what is it waged ? "Why, my fellow-citizens, it is a 
conflict between two orders of civilization : and the weaker order made the war. It is, on 
the part of the Government, a war in defence of free institutions. It is a war against free- 
dom and the right of the laborer to wages, on the part of the Confederacy, which my friend's 
arguments so defend that he has constantly to say, "Though I seem to be defending ihe 
rebellion, I do not mean to do it." But let me illustrate the truth of my assertion. On the 
1 7th of September, L856, there was a great Democratic meeting, or convention, as it was called, 
held in the State House Yard, in the city of Philadelphia, in commemoration of the adoption 
of the Constitution. That was eight years ago — four years before the rebellion began. 
Among the distinguished speakers at that meeting was Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, 
who was, in 1848. a Democratic Senator in the Congress of the United States, and who is now 
a Senator from the State of Georgia, in the Congress of the Confederate States. In address- 
ing that meeting, he said: "The difference between us, gentlemen, is this; you believe it 
better that capital should hire its labor, while we believe it better thai capital should own its 
labor." 

Those brief sentences involve the essential question of this war. 

It is from the fact that the Democratic leaders believe that capital oughl to own its labor. 
that you are spoken of as "mudsills" and as "greasy mechanics." The Southern leaders of 
the party despise any man who labors for his living. They have been accustomed to owning 
men and women, and selling them and their children, in families or apart ; and they look with 
contempt on any man who labors, or who has ever labored. This is. as I have said, a war 
between two orders of civilization ; and so Mr. Herschel V. Johnson defined it in his incipi- 
ency. No free State has gone into the rebellion ; and there was no slave State that had qi ; 
at the beginning of the war a powerful party trying to take it into the rebellion. But for the 
efforts of General Lyon, Missouri would have been carried out of the Union. Had not Gen- 
eral McClellan, by the most arbitrary act ever perpetrated within the limits of our country 
(and yet, as I have shown, a perfectly justifiable act), arrested the members of the .Maryland 
Legislature when they were about to pass an ordinance of secession. Maryland would have 
been taken out of the Union. Was it constitutional to seize a whole Legislature and send 
them to a fort ? It was the Democratic candidate for the presidency who did it. He did 
just what General Jackson would have done, what Douglas has thoroughly vindicated as 
constitutional, and what every patriot says was right. He saved the country from war with 
Maryland by sending to a fort the men who were about to pass an ordinance of secession, and 
giving the ■• sober second thought" of the people a chance to operate. 

Kentucky at the beginning of the war proposed to occupy a position of neutrality. 1 was 
with the President of the United States when he received the response of Governor Magoffin, 
of Kentucky, to his appeal for Kentucky's quotaof the seventy-live thousand men with whom 
to respond to the assault on Fort Sumter. The Governor replied to the President that he 
should not have a man for such a wicked purpose. That State tried for a while to occupy a 
position of neutrality. But she is all right now. As a slave State she was more against the 
Union than for it. So was every slave State, while every free labor State was unqualifiedly for 
the Union. 

Now let us look somewhat at the characteristics of the conflicting orders of civilization. 
Our Northern system is characterized by two great features. The first is a system of public 
education ; and the second, a system of laws, by which every man who works is entitled to 
wages for his work. Thus in Philadelphia we provide out of the common funds for the main- 
tenance of public schools. The gentleman would exclude negroes from the schools in the 
District of Columbia. Do we exclude them from the public schools of Philadelphia? No, 
he knows we have fifteen schools for negroes in Philadelphia: and let me ask. by way of 
parenthesis, whether the gentleman will tell you that he is opposed to their maintenance. Will 
he tell you that if he had his way, he would shut up those fifteen negro schools and doom the 
children who attend them to the ignorance of slaves, who are not permitted to learn to read 
the Lord's prayer? If the gentleman will not tell you this, let him not lind fault with me 
because I have aided in establishing in the capital of our country schools for colored children 
to enable them to read the Lord's prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Constitution of 
our country. 

Under our Northern system of civilization, as I was saying, we build at the public expense 
sehool-houses ; we provide teachers; we furnish books and stationery, light and fuel. How- 
ever poor may be the father or the widowed mother, there is for the child an open school-house 
and the teacher. " A fool for luck," says the maxim, " and a poor man for children." — Go on 
my good man. The country wants soldiers : and though you have twenty children, there shall 
be a desk in the school-house for every one of them. Every child who comes into the com- 
monwealth, whether by birth or emigration, has the right under our laws to learn to read, and 
write, and cipher, and though he be the child of the poorest laborer, if he has intellect, and 
if his parents will simply feed and clothe him, he may win his way into the high school, and 
through it, may walk out of it, as many a poor boy has done, an accomplished scholar 
ready for the best offices and the highest duties of the land. We propose by our civilization 
to do for every child what a benevolent man did for an unfortunate bug — a green-backed gold 
4 



bug, that had fallen on his back and was kicking upwards. He got his stick under the insect 
and gave it a toss, and it fell on its feet. "Now, go, poor devil. " said he, " hoe your own 
road. You have just as good a chance as any other bug of your kind.'' Our civilization 
proposes to give every child in the commonwealth the mastery of the English language, which 
holds all the treasures of poetry, fiction, science, philosophy, and religion, that the world has 
garnered. We mean to give to every boy sufficient knowledge of numbers to enable him to 
keep his accounts with the world with which he is to buffet— the ability to write, that he may 
embody his thoughts and send them to his distant friends, or transmit them to posterity, if 
they have sufficient value to carry them so far. When we have given him this education we 
say to him, " Now, go forth — not poor devil, but brave boy — Go forth ! The world is all before 
you. The highest honors in the land are open to you — its greatest wealth, its proudest posi- 
tions. Your I'ather'was poor, and your home humble ; and your clothes but indifferent while 
you were attending school; but that must not depress you. You are in a land of freedom, 
and at this very hour one who in his boyhood worked on a flat-boat, and in his manhood split 
rails, wields the helm of state of the proudest and greatest nation the world ever saw in its 
grandest crisis ; and as he, a laboring boy, rising from poverty, has won and honors that posi- 
tion, so may you." Our system does more than this. It stimulates the industry of every 
child. The smallest girl who tends a loom or spindle in yonder factory, is entitled to wages 
for every hour's work she does. She may be of foreign birth ; she may not speak our language ; 
she may be a cripple ; but if she has industry and ability to tend one of your simplest machines, 
the law steps in and secures her wages for her work. 

Let me give a familiar illustration as to the operation of our law on the subject. You live 
in a pretty village, and some of you are carpenters, fence-makers, etc. One of yon may live 
near to a wealthy neighbor, who is not very generous, but who is a clever old fellow in his 
way. He wakes up some morning and finds that his fence has been blown down. He sees 
you walking about with your hands in your pocket, and falls into conversation with you. You 
say, "Mr. Jones, your fence is down." "Yes, John," he replies, ''and I am almost too old 
input it up. By the way, you are doing nothing; suppose you put it up." "Yes, Mr. 
Jones," say you, " I will do it gladly," and you go to work and put up his fence. From time 
to time neighbors pass and see you at work. When the job is done you go to Mr. Jones and 
say, " I have finished your fence." " Well, John," he replies, " I am very much obliged to you, 
1 will go and look at it." He examines the work and says, '• This is very capitally done ; 1 think 
that the fence is better than it was before ; T am really very much obliged to you." " But, M r. 
Jones," say you, "I didn't put it up for thanks. It is my trade to do this sort of work, I don't 
mean to charge you much ; but I have been so many days working at it, and my bill will be 
so much." "But," says he, "I didn't agree to pay you a dollar. I didn't think of such a 
thing. If I had known that you would charge me for it, I would have tried to do it myself; 
you had no work to do, and were loitering about here, and I thought that I was merely asking 
a friendly turn by suggesting it to you." You reply. "Mr. Jones, pay me for my work. If 
you think that I charge too much, call in two or three disinterested men, and let them say 
what the work is worth. I only want the value of my labor." He refuses to pay, and you 
bring suit before a magistrate. In that suit what are you required to prove ? Not that he 
agreed to pay you for the work, but simply that he asked you to do it; that you did it, and its 
value. You prove by your neighbors who saw you laboring from time to time, that you did 
the work, and establish by two or three judicious men the value of the work; and the 
alderman gives judgment in your favor; because the law of the State, yes, of every free-labor 
State, declares that every man, woman, and child who works shall have wages for that work. 
Mr. Jones may take his appeal to court. But when the case comes before the court, you 
prove the same facts, and the judge tells the jury what the law is, and the jury give you a 
verdict. They thus say that a man cannot violate the law of Pennsylvania by robbing the 
laborer of his hire, and by their verdict he is obliged to pay the alderman's costs and the 
court costs as a penalty for having tried to violate the law. 

But, aentlemen, our system docs more than this, it stimulates the inventive powers of our 
people, by securing to the poorest man who discovers a principle or invents a process the ex- 
clusive enjoyment for a long term of years of the results of his invention or discovery. It 
does everything possible to stimulate our iudustry, our energy, our ingenuity. Thus it obtains 
from every child born or brought into the Commonwealth the most and best that he or she is 
able to do. It expands and quickens its intellect; it stimulates its energy, its industry,' its en- 
terprise. Thus the free people of the North became wealthy, educated and powerful, and are 
coming to lie recognized by all nations as the grandest people that have ever occupied any 
portion of God's earth. Thus 1 have hastily characterized one of the conflicting orders of 
civilization ; that under which capital hires its labor. Now let us go to that portion of our 
land where the other order under which capital owns its labor prevails. 

That which is owned can own nothing, even the patent cannot give him the results of his 
invention. When the slave earns a dollar he only adds that amount to his master's wealth. 
A master may agree with his slave that if he will pay him so much he shall have his freedom, 
and the slave may earn or beg the amount, the whole amount, and pay it, and the master 
alter receiving it may legally ignore the whole transaction and still hold him as a slave ; be- 
cause the law of the Slave States is that a slave, being a thing— being property— cannot 



make a contract. Thus the slave can have nothing. A slave who was charged with stealing 
his master's pig denied it. " Why," said the witnesses. •■ how dare you say that yen did Qot 
steal it? Didn't we see you carrying it off? Didn't we smell you cookingit ? Weren't you eat- 
ing it when we arrested you ?" " Yes." re) died the negro, " thai is all true : 1 nit 1 didn't steal 
tlic pig. Don't I belong to massa ?" "Certainly you do." " Didn't the pig belong to massa ?" 
•■ Yes," •■ Well, then, don't the pig belong to massa just as much when it is in me as it did 
before?" Thai is the other side of the case. When you, laboring men. have done your 
week's work — and a hard week's work it may have been, upon the roads or the streets, in the 
blacksmith shop or the factory— you go to your little home a happy man on Saturday night 
carrying your wages. When you kiss that wife <>l' yours, you may not thrill as you did when 
your lips first touched hers ; but you are prouder id' her and love her more tenderly than then, 
because it was she who gave you those bright boys and blooming girls. It is she who, though 
hers is the last watch at night, is prompt in the morning to get the cozy breakfast. It is she 
who sees those little ones oil' to school, in clean clothes, though they he " well patched." It 
is she who makes a proud man of you on Sunday as you and she wend your way to church, 
or while you rest from the week of weary labor, sees that the children go clean and in their 
last new suit to Sunday school and church, as proud as the children of your proudest neigh- 
bors. You plan with her what you are to do, and of the bright future that hope tells you is 
before each child. You talk with her of what you will do with the money that you are saving. 
She shares the dream of going some day West or South, and under that beneficent act, the 
homestead law. settling on 120 acres of public land for you and her and ten for each of your 
little ones. That by the way is one id' those odious laws which the " Lincoln Congress" have 
passed, and which, though Andy Johnson had pressed it before a Democratic Congress for 
twenty-tive years, had always been defeated, and which, when at last it was passed under a 
Democratic Administration, James Buchanan vetoed. That law, as you know, gives to each 
of you who is a single man eighty acres of public land, and to each of you who is a married 
man one hundred and twenty acres, with ten additional acres for each of your children. You 
dream of going and settling upon those public lands, and your good wife shares your dream. 
You are only waiting till you save enough money to pay the passage of yourselves and the 
little ones. That wile you love ; and it would be worth the measure of the best man's life in 
the world to dare to insult her in your presence. What would be the worth of the life of the 
man who would dare to offer outrage to that fair daughter of yours in your home. But the 
laboring man or woman who is owned has no home. The laborer who is owned has no wife. 
The father and the mother of slave children have no children to honor them in obedience to 
the Divine command. The wife may be put upon the block and sold before the eyes of the 
husband. The child may be put there while the father and mother plead that somebody who 
is to buy it will buy them also, that they may still be near the little thing. Do you think. 
men of Manayunk, that your condition would be improved by having a benevolent master to 
own yon — to outrage your wife and daughter at will — to sell your children from you upon the 
auction block? Yet thai has been the condition of four millions of people in the Southern 
State-, and the question at issue is simply whether that system is better than ours. And the 
gentleman, in defending his side of the issue, complains because Congress gave the widows of 
the freed slaves who have been killed while fighting our battles the benefit of what is and has 
been for years the law of Pennsylvania, lie says that the widow of a white soldier, who can- 
not produce the certificate of her marriage, must go without a pension. That is not so. The 
pension laws require her to prove that she was the soldier's wife. The law of Pennsylvania is. 
that cohabitation and reputation make a man and woman, for all legal purposes, husband 
and wife. Who says the ceremony at a Quaker wedding? Let any man and woman in this 
assemblage get up and say. " We are man and wife." and then go and live together for a week, 
and let that man be killed in the military service of the United States, and you will see whether 
that woman cannot gel a pension as his widow, by proving that they were married according 
to the laws of Pennsylvania. Now, these people who have been owned, and bought and sold 
— whose masters would not allow them to be married — are fighting our battles, and because 
we have given them the benefit of the law of Pennsylvania, and declared that if a woman can 
prove 8he has been acknowledged as a man's wife for the period of two years next preceding 
his death, and is the mother of bis children, she shall, in case of his death in the military ser- 
vice, lie regarded as his lawful widow, and shall, with her children, receive a pension. The 
gentleman quarrels with that act because these people have '■ skins not colored like his own," 
and are thus escaping from bondage into the light of our free civilization. 1 shall show you, 
before I get through, that many of these people, whom the gentleman talks about as " negroes," 
are white us himself or I, and are the kinsmen of the leaders of the Southern Confederacy. 
We have freed the colored children of Jefferson Davis and his brother Joseph. The daugh- 
ter of General R. E. Lee is a woman 1 have often seen at Washington. She is not of her 
father's color; she is about midway between his and that of her colored mother. 

But to return from a digression. Where the man is owned he can earn nothing for himself. 
He can have no wife or child to call his own — none that can be more sacred to him than the 
calf or sheep that his master owns and may sell. Where laborers are owned there are no 
public schools. Why should the slave be taught ? When the children of Israel were in 



bondage, their oppressors provided ghat no smith should be among them, lest he might fashion 
instruments of iron with which they would strike for freedom. All through the Southern 

States the laws, in the like spirit and for the same object, have provided that there shall be 
no schoolmaster among the slaves. By the law of every Slave State it has been made a 
felony to teach a colored person to read — they have not said in their acts " to read the Word 
of (iod ;" but the child who can read nothing cannot read that. While the Southern people 
have been contributing in a small way to missionary societies, etc., they have held four 
millions of human souls in the bondage of profoundest ignorance, and have imprisoned as a 
felon any man or woman who might undertake to teach any of them to read the Word of God. 
So. too, they have shut out all education from the poor white men of that section, not by 
statute, it is true, but as effectually. Your children cannot go to school if they are obliged 
to walk many miles; and where one man owns a plantation of three, five, or ten thousand 
acres, and has it worked by his three, five, or seven hundred, or his thousand slaves, the poor 
people living on little patches of ground have no chance for public schools. And outside of 
the city of lJaltimore I do not know of a single public school in a slave State for white or black 
children — not one. In this way 1 he poor white men are driven out of the South. If they 
want to have their children educated, they must leave their homes, sell their little property 
to their wealthy neighbors, and come to a Northern State, where there is a system of public 
education. Hence you find that Indiana and Illinois and the Northwestern States generally, 
are full of poor people, who have escaped from the oppression of the slave States, who have 
sold the graves of their fathers and the homes of their childhood to come North, where there 
is social equality for the poor man and education for the poor man's child. 

This war is, I aver, between these two conflicting systems of civilization. One system 
acknowledges matrimony between man and woman. It propose- to train up children in 
accordance with the commandment to "honor their father and their mother that their days 
may be long in the laud which the Lord their God giveth them." It is a system in accordance 
with Christianity — a system under which the poor emigrant sees in his child the proud 
American citizen, the aspirant for wealth and honors, whether social or political, 'the other 
system denies to the laboring classes all their rights. "Ah!" but says my friend, "you are 
talking now about niggers — at least 1 was talking about niggers." I ask the gentleman 
whether the Almighty had the right to make his children of what color he pleased. He nor 
I, nor the slavemonger made the negro. The negro did not select his own color. If the 
Almighty had told him in advance what sort of a place America was. and advised him of the 
prejudice its people have against dark colors, and that he was going to send him here, and 
had asked him what color he would prefer, 1 have no doubt that the negro would have chosen 
to be of the white race. The Lord, my Father, made him. He made him in his own image, 
and he points him through the Scriptures to the Gross to which 1 go for my highest hopes. 
I have no right, black and ugly though my Father's child be, to wrong and oppress him 
because of the act of that Almighty Father m giving him a color not like my own. 

But I tell the gentleman that he is abusing the children id' his friends ; and I will show him 
to how large an extent these people, for whom he says we legislate too largely, are such. In 
answering, in Congress, arguments of the same drift as those presented by the gentleman, I 
had occasion to go to the census to show who and what the colored people of the South are. 
1 beg leave to read a short extract from that speech. The charge was. not only that we 
wanted to give the negroes civil rights, but that you men of the North wanted to intermarry 
with them. I repudiated that charge, and answered it thus: — 

" It is not the men of the North who have been enamored by that complexion which is 
described as the 'shadowed livery of the burning sun.' It is not the men of the North who 
have laid their ' snowy hands' in ' palms of russets;' or 'hung Europe's priceless pearl that 
shames the Orient on Afric's swarthy neck ;' or realized experimentally the truth of the poet's 
aphorism, that — 

'In joining contrasts lieth Love's delight.' 

"These exquisite and delicate sources of enjoyment have been in the exclusive possession 
of the Southern Democracy, the colaboreis in politics of the gentleman who charges them so 
wantonly upon the people of his own section. He has never seen the white Northern man 
choose his companion from that race. I have by me the picture of a band of slaves sent 
North by General Banks, four of whom are as white as we who hold this discussion. They 
come from the colored schools recently established in New Orleans. They are children of 
Southern Democrats; bom in Virginia and Louisiana, they were owned or sold by their 
fathers as negro slaves. 

" I look, sir, upon that picture of Washington's companion in the Revolution [pointing to 
the picture of La Fayette] and his fit associate in this Hall, and 1 remember that when on 
Ins tour through this country in L824 he visited the Southern States, he very publicly ex- 
pressed his surprise at finding the complexion of the negro population in the cities so largely 
changed from what it had been at the close of the revolutionary war. 

" lint a few weeks ago, in conversation with a distinguished son of Kentucky, himself a 
slave-holder, upon the question now under discussion, he said to me that in J849, he was at 



school at Danville. Kentucky ; that there was there, on an average, three hundred young- men, 
and that though the colored population of the town numbered six hundred, there were but 
six of pure African blood. The students at that school were not Northern Abolitionists 
or Republicans. They were the wealthy and educated young gentlemen of the Democratic 
South. 

"But, sir, let this question not rest upon isolated instances or narrow localities. Let us 
look at the census of 18(>0. 1 find by it that more than half a million of the colored people 
of that section are, as I have already said, the kindred of the white race of the South. Thus, 
in Louisiana, of the free colored people, si. 2'.) per cent, are of mixed blood, while in Penn- 
sylvania only 36.67 are of mixed blood. And here let me say that the latter are nearly all of 
Southern birth.'' 

I then recalled an incident occurring in a Philadelphia court, where there were fifty wit- 
nesses, all colored, from Charleston and its vicinity, and among them all neither a white nor 
a black man; they were all of mixed blood. 

Again, in 1850, the census shows there were among the slaves seven and three-tenths percent. 
of mixed blood. In ten years the percentage had increased to ten and forty-one one-hundredths 
percent. I have seen slave girls as fair as the fairest among us ; 1 have seen slave men as 
white as the whitest among you. Their complexion makes no difference in their rights, so 
long as the mother is a slave. The condition of the child of a slave follows that of the 
mother. 

Now, my friends, we are in a war between these two orders of civilization. That war is 
made by the rebels to divide and destroy our country. They claimed first, by peaceful but 
unconstitutional means, to force their accursed system of unpaid labor upon us; ami when 
they could not do that, and found we resisted it. they organized a rebellion, and undertook to 
snatch from us by war more than half our country. We determined that they should not do 
it. "We called out armies and sent them to the field; we created a navy; and all this while a 
large body of men. all those who loved the Democratic organization better than their country, 
remained at home finding fault with every act of the government. You know well that when 
1 was in this town pleading for recruits to swell our army, the Democratic orators were going 
about the country denouncing the conscription, denouncing the suspension of the habeas 
corpus, asserting that the war was " Lincoln's war for the nigger," and thus trying to keep 
men from joining the army to crush the rebellion ; and what was more, inspiring ever) Southern 
rebel, whether civilian or soldier, with a hope that there would be a diversion in their behalf 
intheNorth. The rebels would have surrendered long ago but forthe hope that the Democratic 
sympathy for them in the North would become practical and effective. They would surrender 
before a week, but that they hope the Democratic party, which holds the doctrine of my friend 
and is in such close sympathy with them, will achieve a victory at the coming election. 

Now, what wrong thing have we done ? Are we not right in maintaining our country ? Do 
you want to maintain for yourselves and posterity your rights and interests in the Southern 
States ? The Constitution gives you the right of citizenship in each one of those Mates. Do 
you desire to see the sunny South, with its fertile fields, its broad rivers, and the many bless- 
ings which it promises to you and your children, dissevered from your country? Are you 
willing that an alien confederacy shall be established whose boundary shall divide our country 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that may make war upon you at any and at all times ? Some 
of you have come from the Old World, and you know that while France keeps up an army, 
England must keep up an army; and that while England and Prance keep up standing armies, 
the Germanic States must do so ; and while these do so, Russia must pursue the same policy. 
In other words, you know that, in time of peace, all Europe is one immense camp. You know- 
that the first-born boy of nearly every poor family is taken for the standing army or the navy. 
You know that the laboring people are taxed to maintain those standing armies and navies. 
Why? Because those countries are comparatively small, and each one is afraid to disarm, 
lest, if it should do so. some of the others may ass-ail it. 

Recognize a Confederacy on the south of us, and from that time forward we musl maintain 
an army of half a million men, because our Southern neighbors would maintain such an army. 
By merely acknowledging their independence we should be brought to the condition of Europe, 
with a standing army and an immense navy, to support which the laboring men of the country 
would be eaten up. You know that there could not be peace between two countries divided 
by no mountain range, no broad sea — divided by nothing but an imaginary line, requiring 
for its discovery a surveyor with his instruments. What line is there to divide the so-called 
Southern Confederacy from the United States? Can von. as you go down the Baltimore 
Railroad, tell when you pass from Pennsylvania into Delaware, or when you pass from Dela- 
ware into Maryland? No. not one of you can. Nor can you tell when you pass from Iowa 
into Missouri, or from Pennsylvania into Maryland in the valley. There is no natural line of 
division. Every slave who might cross our lines would be followed by a master armed to 
seize him. This invasion of our territory would be resisted or resented, and so every slave 
who escaped would make a cause of war. If we could not live in peace under the Constitu- 
tion, in God's name, how can we hope to live in peace as two armed Confederacies, watching 
and taunting each other from day to day ? To acknowledge the independence of the rebel- 



lions States is to make war perpetual, and to doom ourselves and children to all the exactions 
and oppressions of European despotic life. 

"But," says the gentleman, "you have put the negro on an equality with the white man by 
taking him as a soldier." My friends, from the outstarl 1 have supported the policy of making 
the negro help fight this war. I could not see that he was a bit better than the white man. 
And I ask you, mother, was it not better that we should take the rebel's slave and put him in 
the ranks of our army to fight, than that we should take your son and put him there? I ask 
you, young wife, was it not better that we should take the rebel's slave, put a uniform on him 
and a musket in his hand, and say to him, " Now fight for our country and your freedom," than 
that we should take that young husband of yours and send him, under General McClellan, into 
the swamps of the Chickahominy ? Men of Manayunk, are you jealous of those negroes who 
are fighting, day by day, around Petersburg, to put down the rebellion? Do you, father, 
regret that it was not your son who was put to death at, Fort Pillow, crucified by those 
towards whom the sympathies of the gentleman flow out so exuberantly? '"No." say you, 
"we must put down this rebellion, and you were right in taking the rebel's laborer to do it." 

Let me turn to a work that I wish every one of you would read. It is from the pen of a 
distinguished Democrat, a gentleman who represented Indiana for four years in Congress, and 
who was Mr. Buchanan's Minister at the Court of Naples. It is entitled "The Wrong of 
.Slavery, the Right of Emancipation, and the Future of the African Race in the United States, 
by Robert Dale Owen." Its motto is, "Over the entire surface of the globe, the races who 
compel others to labor, without laboring themselves, fall to decay." 

When the war began, we of the North were eighteen millions of people; the rebels were 
but eight millions of white people; yet they had nearly as much laboring and fighting power 
as we, as 1 shall show from this book. The slave girl and woman do the work each of a man. 
But to Mr. Owen's book: — 

" We had need of all our resources, even to the uttermost. Had we at that time employed 
them all? Had we not, up to that time, left in the hands of our enemies, with scarcely an 
effort to disturb it, one of the chief elements of their military strength? — nay, an element so 
overwhelmingly influential in its practical results, that, according to its management against 
us or in our favor, might be the ultimate issues of the war — defeat if we neglected it, victory 
if we employed the opportunity ! Let us look closely to this. 

"By the census of i860, the number of white males between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five was, iu the loyal States, about four millions; in the disloyal Slates, about a million 
three hundred thousand — let us say about three to one. The disparity seems great ; but as 
a basis of military strength* the calculation is wholly fallacious; for the disloyal States con- 
tained, when the insurrection broke out. three millions and a half of people, who were not 
insurgents, who did not voluntarily assist in the rebellion, but who were compelled by force 
to render it most efficient aid. 

" Out of the above four millions, the North had to provide soldiers and (with inconsiderable 
exception, not usually extending to field-labor) laborers also. 

"Not so in the South. Her million three hundred thousand had more than their own 
number to aid them in military as well as agricultural labor; for, as among slaves both sexes 
are employed from an early age to a late period in life in the field, the number of laborers out 
of three millions and a half of slaves may fairly be put at two millions. Let us estimate 
three hundred thousand of these as employed in domestic service and other occupations fol- 
lowed by women among us, and we have seventeen hundred thousand plantation-hands, male 
and female, each one of whom counts against a Northern laborer on farm or in workshop, or 
a Northern soldier laboring on intrenchment or fortification ; each one of whom, staying at 
home to labor liberates a white man for active military duty in the field. 

"To one million three hundred thousand add one million seven hundred thousand, and we 
have throe millions total in the insurgent States of numerical force available in this war; that 
is, of soldiers to light and laborers to support the nation while fighting. 

■• Then supposing the negroes all loyal to their masters, or at least remaining to labor for 
them, the comparative military strength, so far as it is indicated by population, was as four 
iu the North to three in the South. 

" If we take into account that ours were the invading and attacking forces, while the insur- 
gents had the advantage of acting upon their own territory, near to their supplies, with short 
inside lines of communication, and on the defensive, it need not surprise us that, after the 
lapse of a year and eight months of unintermitting war, the scale still remained in the balance, 
neither side yet hopelessly depressed. 

" Under such a condition of national affairs, when there was a question of claims held by 
the enemy, upon which rested his powers to supply his armies with the necessaries of life, it 
was incumbent upon us to go much further than to inquire whether the commander-in-chief 
had the right to take and declare forfeited these claims. The true and fit question is. whether, 
without a flagrant violation of official duty, he had the right to refrain from taking them. 

" You have no oath," our present Chief Magistrate said, addressing, in his Inaugural, the 
insurgents already in arms against lawful authority — "you have no oath registered in Heaven 



to destroy this government; while I have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and de- 
fend it." 

These facts were palpable. Yet every man in the North who sympathized with the rebel- 
lion, and who was against the country, cried out, "Yon shall not use the negro." The men 
of that class turned to the laboring people and said to them, as my friend has said to you, 
"They are trying to make the negro your equal." Why was it? It was because they knew 
that, so long as the rebels had those four millions to do their work, they could put every able- 
bodied white man in the field to fight ; and that while our poor white soldiers were dying by 
hundreds and thousands when working night and day, throwing up entrenchments, the white 
soldiers of the Southern army lav about, while their negroes dug the entrenchment and built 
the fortification. From the first I called on the Government " to take negroes, and make them 
dig, and work, and fight, and save the white men of the North." My friend and the leaders 
of his party said. " For God's sake don't touch the negro ! You are violating the Constitu- 
tion, and will irritate our southern friends." Then they turned to you and said, " Don't you 
see that these Lincolnites are trying to make the negro your equal — trying to pass laws to 
make him as good as you are?" My God! were we not saving you from the perilous battle 
field, and malarious swamp ? Were we not saving you from the labor which the negro could 
perform, that you might meet and vanquish the army that was shooting you, your sons and 
your brothers? And were they not pleading and working for the rebellion, who were calling 
upon you to embarrass us, because we wanted to use the negro to put it down ? 

Yes, we have used them. Thank God, we now have 200,000 stalwart negroes, who are not 
hoeing corn or cotton, or building entrenchments fur the rebels, but carrying United States 
muskets, and driving their rebel masters freely as their masters used to drive them. They 
carry with them the American flag. They will aid in bringing back the country covered by 
the Confederacy. And that is what I meant when I said that they were the " coming man." 
We had able generals, but they had not soldiers enough ; and these Democratic leaders had 
so excited your prejudices against the negro that you would not let the Government use him. 
And there, on that Gtk of July, I was surrounded by a body of black and white people, and 
was pleading with the negro to enlist and carry forward the flag. 1 told my hearers that the 
negro was the coming man; that if they would recognize his manhood, and give him arms 
and equipments, and a flag to carry, and officers to command him, he would take Vicksburg 
and Port Hudson, and would aid the white man in taking Petersburg and Richmond. That 
is the sense in which I meant that he was the "coming man." And I ask any soldier here 
to-night, who has fought on the same field with a negro regiment, whether the negroes are 
not men, and do not make good soldiers, and die fearlessly for their freedom and our country 
and its flag? If you want the black soldiers stricken from your armies — if you want to go 
and save them — then support for Congress a man who is opposed to using them as soldiers ; 
for if you re-elect me, I shall go for enlisting every able-bodied negro we can get; and if we 
can get half a million of negroes, I shall go for bringing home every white private soldier who 
wants to come home; for half a million of brave and well-disciplined soldiers will conquer 
what little is left of the Confederacy. So that if you feel that the life of your son or brother 
is not so sacred to you as the life of the rebel's slave, you will vote for my opponent. But if 
you believe that it is the duty of the Government to use all the resources at its command — 
that it is its duty to make South Carolina furnish her quota, and Mississippi furnish hers, and 
every other rebel Stale furnish hers, you will vote for me; for 1 shall not be content until (if 
tli' 1 war lasts long enough) every rebel State has furnished as many loyal soldiers, black or 
white, according to her population, as Pennsylvania has been called to furnish. 

There you have one of the issues that divide my friend and me. I am not for the negro 
before the white man. But 1 am for giving every man his rights — wages for his labor, the 
right to defend his wife and daughter, and the right to seat his children in a school, that they 
may lenru to read the Constitution of the United States and the Word of God, given us for 
our guidance here and our salvation hereafter. 



Speech of Hon. Wm. D. Kelley, in the 
Northrop-Kelley Debate. 

DELIVERED AT M AN AYUNK, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 4, 1864. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY D. WOLFE BROWN. 



My Fellow-citizens: My friend opened the discussion last night, and occupied your atten- 
tion an hour and a half. He discussed some of his propositions; he gave you a list of the 
names of certain laws to which he objects, and stated his judgment of their general purpose; 
and made some tolerably fair hits at me personally; but he said not one word against the 
rebellion — not one in favor of putting it down — not one in favor of strengthening the armies 
that are battling for the unity of our country and the maintenance of our Constitution. He 
endeavored to excite your prejudices against the negro. He told you that slaves were hap- 
pier aud more secure than you. He reminded you — no, not reminded, but told you that you 
were all liable, to go to the almshouse in your old age, while slaves were certain not to go there. 
I cannot say that he reminded you of this, for it is not the fact, aud he cannot point to the case 
of one honest, temperate, industrious workingman who has gone to the almshouse from Mana- 
yunk. But he told you that the slaves were better off; for the Northern workingman had the 
almshouse staring him in the face, while the benevolent owner of the slave would take care of 
him in old age and sickness. 

The implication of his entire discourse was that we of the North had begun this war. In- 
deed, he said expressly, that as early as 1790 New England had begun to antagonize slavery, 
and hence the war. He deprecates the horrors of war, and tells you that if he and his party 
get inlo power you shall have peace. Does he mean to say that they will fight the war to a 
successful issue more rapidly than we are doing? I ask this question, and I request him to 
answer it. Does he mean to say that they will fight this war to a successful issue more 
rapidly than we are doing? or, does he mean that if they get into power, they will give the 
rebel leaders their way, and so procure peace ? I ask him to tell us precisely how he and his 
party will redeem the promise which he made last night, that if you would elect them to office 
they would give you immediate peace. 

1, on the other hand, charge that this war was made by the South — that it was made with 
the encouragement of the Democratic leaders of the North. I have shown in my earlier 
addresses, as you will find by reading them, that the rebellion was organized during Mr. 
Buchanan's administration: — that South Carolina seceded 76 days before Mr. Lincoln was 
inaugurated — that the Confederacy was organized, and Jeff. Davis elected President and 
Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President early in the month of February preceding the 4th of 
March on which our good President was inaugurated, and 1 now ask the gentleman to point 
to the order of Government by which Fort Sumter was fired upon. That act was done by 
the order of the Confederate government and not that of the United States Government. The 
war is a rebellion of the slave owners of the South against the Government of the United 
States, in order to form a confederacy of which slavery — a system of unpaid labor, a system 
in which capital owns its labor — shall be the corner-stone ; and so Alexander H. Stephens, 
the present Vice-President of the Confederacy, deliberately announced to the world. The 
Southern leaders prepared for and began their rebellion with the certain knowledge that if 
the Northern people should be true to themselves and the Government, it would involve them 
in war. But the reckless leaders did not believe that the Northern people had courage and 
patriotism enough to maintain the integrity of their country. They boasted that one South- 
ern man was as good as five Northern men. Franklin Pierce, the last Democratic President 
but one, had written to Jefferson Davis, that if war should follow secession, that war could 
not be confined to the South, but would prevail in our own cities, our own towns, our own 
villages. The aristocratic- leaders of the Democracy of the North despise the laboring man 
as much as their fellows in the South, and are as tired of universal suffrage and political 
equality as they. They dare not express their feeling on the subject so freely, because they 
look to the votes of laboring men to give them power to execute their aristocratic purposes, 
but they have sustained the Southern slave-drivers in all their assaults on popular rights ; and 
when you were told by my friend, last night, that the slaves were happier, and, in many con- 
tingencies, better oil' than the white working-men of the North, you were told exactly what 
the Democratic leaders believe ; I, however, never knew one before who, like my competitor, 



was so honorably frank as to avow this belief in the face of a body of workingmen. Never- 
theless, it is their creed. 

But let this not rest on my mere declaration. When the Convention of the State of Georgia 
was considering the question whether that State should secede. Alexander II. Stephens, the 
present Vice-President of the Confederacy, made a speech against secession. He held to 
the doctrine of State rights; he believed that a State had a right to secede, and he said that, 
if a majority of the people of his State should determine to go out, he would go with them. 
He identified himself with his State. But he appealed to the members of that Convention 
not to involve their country in war. as the attempt at secession must do. He believed that 
Northern men would fight. He believed that when the South should secede, it would become 
the duty of the Presideut, who had sworn " to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution," 
to make war in defence of the Union. He knew that when the war should come, it would 
abolish slavery, because he knew that it would be the duty of the commander-in-chief of 
every army, when he came to the frontiers of a country, to offer protection to all the people 
of the country who would support his Hag, and he knew that we of the North recognized 
negroes as people, and he saw that we could not be so foolish as to pour out the blood of our 
own men to fight Southern rebels when we could call on their negroes to do that work. He 
remembered that Lord Dunmore, the British Colonial Governor of Virginia, at the beginning 
of the Revolutionary war. had, in accordance with the usages of war, issued a proclamation 
calling upon slaves to rally to the flag, and guaranteeing them freedom for so doing. There- 
fore he knew that to go to war would be to abolish slavery, that war would make it the duty 
of the North to abolish it; or, iu other words, that it must inevitably lie abolished by the 
necessities of war. Now, while I answer the whole of my friend's appeals in behalf of the 
South, and his allegation that the North is in the wrong, by reading you a portion of the 
speech of Mr. Stephens. Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, made iu January, LsdL, 
in the Georgia Convention, which passed the ordinance of secession, 1 will also prove that 
it (the rebellion) is not against wrong and oppression, but was begun in the delusive hope of 
founding a slave empire. Those remarks were as follows : — 

"This step (Secession), once taken, can never be recalled; and all the baneful consequences 
that must follow will rest on the Convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity 
shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will inevi- 
tably invite and call forth ; when our green fields of waving harvest shall be trodden down 
by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land, our temples of justice 
laid in ashes, all the horrors and desolations of war upon us, who but this Convention will be 
held responsible for it, and who but he that shall give his vote for this unwise and ill-timed 
measure shall be held to strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, and 
probably cursed and execrated by posterity in all coming time, for the wide and desolating 
ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate? 

" Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will even 
sat is I'y yourselves in calmer moments, what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in 
tlic calamity that it will bring. What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to 
justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case, and to what cause, or one 
overt act can you point on which to rest the plea of justification ? What right has the North 
assailed ? What interest of the South has been invaded ? What justice has been denied, or 
what claim founded in justice and right, has been withheld ? Can any of you to-day name one 
governmental act of wrong deliberately and purposely done by the Government at Washing- 
ton of which the South has a right to complain ? 1 challenge the answer. 

'• On the other hand, let me show the facts of which 1 wish you to judge ; I will only state 
facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now stand as records authentic iu the history 
of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the importation of 
Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years ? When 
we asked for a three-fourths representation iu Congress of our slaves, was it not granted ? 
When we demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those perspns 
owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and 
strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850? When we asked that more territory should 
be added that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our 
demands, in giving Louisiana. Florida and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, 
and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic 
act, do not destroy this hope, and, perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched 
from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive 
decree of universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow?" 

Let me pause here to ask whether Alexander 11. Stephens did not, as 1 have said, see, 
before the war began, that slavery must inevitably be abolished by the war? And yet. more 
true to the Confederacy than he. my friend stands up and tells you the war is for the negro, 
and against the white man, and that emancipation is unwise and unconstitutional. 

"But what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the general govern- 
ment? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain iu it, and are united 
as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well 



as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty 
years of .Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the executive department. 
So of tlic Judges of the Supreme Court ; we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven 
from the North. Although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the free States, 
yet a majority of the court has always been from the South. This we have required so as to 
guard against any interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we 
have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the legislative branch of government. 
In choosing the presiding presidents (pro«tem.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to 
their eleven. Speakers of the House we have had twenty-three and they twelve. While the 
majority of representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, 
yet we have so generally secured the speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and con- 
trols the legislation of the country. 

"Nor have we had less control in every other department of the general government. Of 
Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Of foreign 
ministers we have had eighty-six, and they had but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the 
business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the free States, from their 
greater commercial interest, yet we have had the principal embassies, so as to secure the 
world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar, on the best possible terms. We have had 
a vast majority of the higher officers of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the 
soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and con- 
trollers filling the executive departments. The record shows for the last fifty years, that of 
the three thousand thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we 
have but one-third of the white population of the republic. Again, look at another item, in 
which we have a great and vital interest, that of revenue, or means of supporting government. 
From official documents we learn that a fraction over three-fourths of the revenue collected 
for the support of government has uniformly been raised from the North. 

"Pause now while you can, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important items. 
Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in war with 
the North, with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle and offered up as sac- 
rifices upon the altar of your ambition — and for what ? Is it for the overthrow of the American 
Government, established by our common ancestry; cemented and built up by their sweat and 
blood, and founded on the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity? And as such, I 
must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest 
and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest go- 
vernment, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its 
measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of 
heaven ever shone upon. Now. for you to attempt to overthrow such a government as this, 
unassailed, is the height of madness, folly and wickedness." 

Fellow Citizens : You have heard my friend utter no such words as these, in condemna- 
tion of secession or in justification of the war now prosecuted by the National Government. 
He explained to you two or three times last night that he was not defending the rebellion, 
and this explanation was necessary, because his arguments seemed to you, as they did to me, 
to have that effect and that alone. I have no occasion to explain that I am not defending 
the rebellion, because my arguments do not sound like a defense of it. When you get a cause 
before a jury and hear your lawyer arguing in such a manner that he is obliged to turn to you 
now and then and whisper, " I am not arguing against you," you will feel that you have not 
employed exactly the right man. His arguments ought to be so clearly in your favor that 
you would know, without his assuring you, that he was at least not arguing against you. 
Yet I think that twice last evening the gentleman told you that he was not arguing against 
us and in favor of the Southern Confederacy. I suppose from these reiterated protests that 
he is only speaking in a Pickwickian sense, when he seems to be arguing on that side as 
stoutly as any man within the dominions of Jefferson Davis could. 

I illustrated last night the cause and origin of this rebellion. I told you that it was not 
initiated because there was a party against slavery; not because the Northern States or the 
government were interfering with the rights of the Southern States or people 1 told you 
that the object of the rebellion was to establish a great slave empire. Has not Alexander 
H. Stephens satisfied you that I spoke the truth when I said that the South had no cause to 
complain of the National Government, and that the rebellion was not the consequence of any 
grievances inflicted by thai ( iovernment? Had not the South had for years the absolute con- 
trol of the Government ? Even during Mr. Lincoln's administration, had the Southern States 
remained in the Union, the Senate was so strongly Democratic that in four years its political , 
complexion could not have been changed ; and though there had not been a single Democratic 
member in the lower House, no law which the Southern Democrats did not approve could have 
been passed, because it requires a majority of both Houses to enact a law. So that until 
the end of .Mr. Lincoln's Administration they had, by means of their strength in the Senate, 
an absolute veto power on any unconstitutional law that might be proposed. But the reason 
of this rebellious movement on the part of the Southern leaders was not that the (iovernment 
had wronged them or their section ; it was not that they expected or feared wrong from the 



Government; it was that they believed the laborer should be owned, and that they meant to 
found a confederacy or empire, the corner-stone of which should be human slavery. They 
aimed at the enslavement of the laborer whether white or black. 

I say "white or black." Can the poor white man live in the midst of slavery? Who will 
pay him for doing a day's blacksmithing when for a thousand dollars he can buy a man who 
will do the work for mere food and clothing, and throw his babies in? There is a question for 
you to consider. Who will pay you as a stone mason wages enough to support yen and your 
wife and family when for a thousand or twelve hundred dollars he can buy a stone mason, to 
whom he need give nothing but coarse jail clothes and common food, and whose babies he 
may sell at from one to five hundred dollars? What is then the chance for the free working 
man where slavery prevails ? He has no chance; and "hence it is, my Democratic fellow- 
citizens of American or foreign birth, that you have never gone to the "sunny South." 
There it lies in all its broad capacity and fertility. The winters are not so long by many 
weeks as they are here. You do not need coal there for half the length of time that you need 
it here. The land is more fertile than ours, and yields crops that ours will not produce. 
Norfolk is the finest harbor on the American coast, and was, until after the Revolutionary 
war, the leading commercial port of America. And yet, my fellow-citizens, every ship load 
of emigrants that comes to the country comes to a Northern port. Did you ever know of a 
load of Irishmen, or Englishmen, or Germans, being landed in Norfolk, or in Charleston, or 
in the port of any Slave State ? No; there is no demand for free labor there, because the 
capitalists buy and sell their workingmen. Instead of going to the fertile and sunny South, 
with all its mighty resources both agricultural and mineral, its immense water-power, its mag- 
nificent rivers and harbors, they come in at the North — at Portland. Maine, at Boston, Mass., 
at Providence, R. I., at New York, at Philadelphia ; and at great expense they travel with 
their families in emigrant cars away off thousands of miles to the cold Northwest, that they 
may settle where the laborer is free and respected, where his labor is rewarded by wages, and 
where there will be schools for their children, and churches through which he and they may 
learn their relations to their God and Redeemer, and have their duties in this world sanctified 
to them by a knowledge of those relations. 

Let me again turn to the admirable book from which T read last night, and which T urge you 
all to get. It is entitled " The Wrong of Slavery, the Right of Emancipation, and the Future 
of the African Race in the United States;" by Robert Dale Owen. It is one of the most re- 
markable books I have ever read. Mr. Owen says, on page 125 : — 

"Nor is the contempt engendered by this system towards those occupying subordinate so- 
cial positions confined to the colored man. Under slavery there prows up a class of white, 
as well as black, Pariahs. A marked feature in Southern society is the temper and demeanor 
of the wealthy slaveholder towards an indigent portion of his own race, 'the poor whites.' as 
they are called, of the South. Slavery is to them the source of unmingled evil. Labor 
owned, competing with labor hired, deprives them of the opportunity to earn an honest liveli- 
hood. Labor, degraded before their eyes, destroys within them all respect for industry, ex- 
tinguishes all desire by honorable exertion to improve their condition. Doomed by habitual 
indolence to abject poverty, complacently ignorant, vilely proud, it is doubtful whether there 
exists, in all civilized society, a class of men more deplorably situated. And yet how fiercely 
have they been brought to light for the slave-masters who despise them, and for the system 
which consigns them to degradation." 

With slavery this must be so. A plantation in the South consists of many hundreds, and 
sometimes two or three or even ten thousand acres. The towns are small. Under such 
circumstances it is impossible, if the disposition existed, to maintain free schools. 1 explained 
to you last night that in slave States, it is a felony to teach a colored person to read. With 
four millions of slave laborers, how can there be free schools? And how can the white 
workingman, who can find no employment, educate his children at a pay-school ? What is 
the result? You find that not one out of ten of the poor white men of the South can read 
the simplest reading matter or write his own name. I saw a whole regiment of Confederate 
prisoners, among whom there was not one who could write a letter, and there were only ten or 
twelve who could read. They were free white native workingmen of the South : and it was 
slavery that had doomed them to this ignorance. 

Yet my friend tells you that you have the Almshouse before you, while the happy and 
prosperous slaves have no occasion to dread it ! I do not think he flattered you ; nor does 
he comprehend our institutions or the character of our workingmen, when he thinks that they 
are living in daily dread of the almshouse. Born in the lap of luxury and reared mid its 
appliances, he may have looked from the window of his carriage on the laboring man. bowed 
and begrimmed by toil, and pitying him, felt that the almshouse was his ultimate portion. 
But at eleven years of age I found myself a laboring boy in the workshop, and I know the 
hopes, the fears, and the aspirations of the laboring classes. For nearly three-fifths of the 
first twenty-five years of my life, I earned my living by the cunning of these hands in the 
workshop ; and I never dreaded the almshouse as my last earthly refuge. I knew that I was 
an American citizen, and felt that it was for me the orphan laboring boy to win, if God had 
given me the ability, both wealth and honors. And I have always found, in associating with 



worldlier people, that they assume that though they may not escape from toil or gather 
property, their children will rise and bless the parents who labored to give them education, 
culture, and a start in the world. The gentleman does not know that many of you "poor" 
workingmen own your own homes. He does not know that you are the chief depositors of 
money in our savings banks. He does not know that your pride is that your boy wins his 
way over the rich man's son to the head of the class in school and often beats him in the race 
of life. No, sir, owr working people do not fear the almshouse, and do not feel that their 
condition would be improved if you could get a benevolent master to take* a deed for them 
and their children and hold them as slaves are held in the South. 

What is this system of slavery? I spoke last night of your right to defend your home, 
your wife, and your child. Now, were you a black man in the South — were you a mulatto in 
the South — were you a quadroon — were you an octoroon, with but one-eighth of African blood 
in your veins — nay, white as you are, were you a slave, and should a free white man assail 
your daughter or wife, and outrage her in your presence, you could not have even the poor 
privilege of swearing to the fact in a court ; and were you to strike him, the law would punish 
you with death. ( !ould you only get yourself well adopted into that system which Mr. Johnson 
and the Southern Confederacy support, and which my friend approves, then, not even in your 
own defence or in defence of the honor of wife or daughter, could you testify in a court. This 
is the slave's condition, and it is not altered by the fact that he has not a single drop of African 
blood in his veins. You may be the son of your owner, your mother may have been the 
daughter of' his father, and your grandmother the daughter of his grandfather — a man may 
be thus thrice related to his owner, and have seven-eighths of white blood and only one-eighth 
of colored, yet he cannot testify in any Southern State, except against a slave. 

I turn again to the book of Mr. Owen. The author says, on page 111 : — 

"One of the most universal objects of human desire and of human endeavor is the acqui- 
sition of property. But the laws of slave States* forbid that the slave shall ever acquire any. 
The holiest of human relations is marriage. Bui a slave cannot legally contract it. The 
dearest of human ties are those of family. But a slave may see them broken forever, without 
redr< ss, any hour of his life. Of all human privileges the highest is the right of culture, of 
moral and mental improvement, of education. But to the slave the school is forbidden ground, 
reading and writing are penal offences. The most prized of personal rights is the right of 
self-defence. But a slave has it not ; he may not resist or resent a blow, even if it endanger 
limb or life. 

'• What remains to the enslaved race? Life to man? Honor to woman ? Any security 
for either? Nominally, yes ; actually, save in exceptional cases, no. In the statute laws 
against murder or rape, the word white is not to be found. Persons of either color appear 
to be equally protected. But among the same statutes, in every slave State of the Union, is 
incorporated a provision to the following or similar effect: — 

"'A negro, mulatto, Indian, or person of mixed blood, descended from negro or Indian 
ancestors, to the third generation inclusive, though one ancestor of each generation may have 
been a white person, whether bond or free, is incapable of being a witness in any case, civil 
or criminal, except for or against each other.' [Code of Tennessee, 1858. Section 3808, page 
GST. | 

"So far as regards the two worst crimes against the person, the above provision is the exact 
equivalent of ihe following: — 

" 4 Murder or rape by a, white person, committed against a negro, mulatto. Indian, or person 
of mixed blood, descended from negro or Indian ancestors, to the third generation inclusive, 
though one ancestor of each generation may have been a white person, shall go unpunished, 
unless a white person shall have been present' and shall testify to the commission of the 
crime.' 

"The apology for a law according to which a woman cannot testify against the violator of 
her person, or a son against the murderer of his father, is, that in a community where negro 
slavery prevails such a provision is necessary for the safety of the white races. The same 
apology is adduced to justify the taking from the slave the right of property, of marriage, of 
family ties, of education, of self-defence." 

Now, my fellow-citizens, lei me ask you whether you think, and believe that your wives and 
daughters think, their condition would be improved were they put under a code of that kind. 
Yet, where slavery exists, such laws are inevitable. Under a monarchical government, the 
subject cannot testify against the king: it is treason to imagine the king's death. And 
slavery has been in all time and is everywhere equally intolerant of criticism. Therefore it 
is that' you cannot maintain and enforce Hie Constitution, with slavery existing in our country. 
Slavery, in spite of the Constitution, will "abridge the freedom of speech." 

The gentleman said that under Democratic rule, you would have free speech; and he com- 
plains that traitors, and spies, -and scoundrels, who have cheated t/hc Government in contracts, 
are picked up and sent to foil Lafayette, lie finds fault with everything that the govern- 
ment does, it has done no one act toward putting down this rebellion, that is not in his 
opinion unconstitutional, unwise, and tyrannical. Bui he tells you that you shall have free- 
dom of speech under Democratic rule. I say to you that you never have had freedom of 



speech in this country. T say that if, years before this rebellion broke out, you had gone 
anywhere south of the Potomac or Ohio, and had said that slavery was wrong, you would 
have been mobbed, scourged, and put to death without trial by jury. For twenty-five years 
it has been the prevailing custom of the slave country to treat anti-slavery men thus ; and we 
of the North have submitted to it ; and American citizens who entertaind anti-slavery senti- 
ments have been afraid to travel through portions of their own country. Even my friend 
will admit .this. 

I turn again to Mr. Owen's book to establish the truth of what I say. and to show you that, 
if you want freedom of speech in this or any other country, you must first extinguish slavery. 
On page L66, 1 find a ([notation from a speech made by Senator Preston, of South Carolina, 
in the United States Senate in L838. These are his words : " Let an Abolitionist come within 
the borders of South Carolina, if we can catch him, we will try him. and notwithstanding all 
the interference of all the governments on earth, including the Fedt nil Gov< rnment, we will 
hang him." In 183S, twenty-six years ago, that was proudly said in the Senate of the United 
States. Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, the same man who denounced us as " mudsills,'' 
especially those of us who labor or have labored, said in 1836 : "If chance throw an Aboli- 
tionist in our way, he may expect a felon's death." 

Mr. Owen says, on page 165 : — 

"As in despotic monarchies it was found necessary to declare it to lie treason, punishable 
as a capital offence, to question the divine right of kings, so in a slave empire they see it to 
he indispensable to forbid, on pain of death, all opinions touching the usefulness, or inconsis- 
tency with religion, of slavery. Twenty-five years ago they declared from their places in 
Congress, that, in spite of the Federal Government, every Abolitionist they caught should die 
a felon's death. It was no idle menace, as numerous murders, for opinion's sake, committed 
in the South, before the war, terribly attest. 

" Let us not blame the men. except it be for seeking to uphold the monstrous system handed 
down to them by their forefathers. They must resist the Federal authority to maintain that 
system. They must violate the Constitutional provision which forbids to abridge 'the liberty 
of speech or of the press :' self-defence and its necessities compel them. They found this 
necessary before the war. in order to save slavery from destruction; the necessity will be in- 
creased beyond measure if slavery remain after its close. Now that the President's Procla- 
mation of Emancipation has stirred up. in every Southern plantation, the latent longing for 
freedom, the dangers to their slave system from propagandism will be increased a hundred 
fold. 

"It follows that in this Republic, if reconstructed half slave, half free, no man known to be 
opposed in principle to slavery will be able to cross Mason and Dixon's line without immi- 
nent risk of life. South of that line the Constitutional provision touching the liberty of 
speech and of the press will remain inoperative. A felon's death will await every resident or 
traveller in the South who prints or who utters, in public or in private, any denial that slavery 
is just and moral, any assertion that religion does not sanction it. The Constitution guaran- 
tees the right thus to print, thus to speak. The Federal Government is bound to maintain 
that constitutional right. But it cannot maintain it in a Republic half slave, half free. What 
then? Slavery and the Constitution inviolate cannot coexist. We must give up the one or 
the other." 

It has long been the policy of Southern men to confine free labor to the cold North. They 
saw that they must protect slavery against, among other things, the influence of trades 
unions. They feared the presence of many free workingmen lest they might come to say. 
" Your slaves shall not underwork us ; we support white men at the North when they cannot 
get fair wages, and we won't let these slaves underwork us." Tt was to secure the exclusion 
of free labor, and to save slavery, that they undertook to destroy our Constitution and steal 
one half of our territory. 

Now, men of the Fourth District, the question for you to settle at the coming election is whether 
you want a representative to go to Congress and defend slavery with all its horrors; to with- 
hold the blessing of wages from more than one-half of your country ; to deny to the laborers 
south of the Potomac and the Ohio the advantages of schools; or whether you want one who 
will maintain that every man, whether he be the legitimate or the illegitimate son of his mas- 
ter, or a stranger to his blood, is entitled to wages for his work ; whether you want a man who 
would hand back into slavery the 200,000 stalwart negroes who are to-day in camp or bivouac, 
or fighting for your Constitution, your freedom, your system of civilization, or one who will 
say, " Brave boys, you have fought nobly ;'go forth free men; earn wages; rear your families. 
enjoy homes and be men." 

'• But," says the gentleman. " you want the darkey to come up here." He said to yon last 
night — -" So soon as you make the negroes free, they will come up here and take your wages 
from you." Now, I do not believe that the negro is a bit more ingenious or skilful than you ; 
the truth is. I do not believe that he is so capable. You have learned your trades ; you have 
worked at them for years. When 1 finished my apprenticeship of six years and more, 1 was 
a pretty good workman ; but when, four years later, I quit the workshop, I was still more ex- 
pert and skilful. You have each improved by every year you have labored at your trade. 



And yet so inferior does my friend think yon, that lie believes and tolls you that the I' darkey," 
who all his life has dune nothing but hue corn and cotton— who "cannot tell B from a bull's 
foot" — who dues not know one from a thousand— is so superior to you that if you make him 
free, he will come up here and take your bread out of your mouths by depriving you of work, 
and will drive you to that Almshouse which he thinks is before you. There is his argument 
handed back to you legitimately. 1 say that the slave from a plantation in the South is not 
the equal of the Northern mechanic, and that the manufacturers who now employ you would 
as readily turn a mad bull into many of their departments as place them in charge of one of 
those " big-fisted" negroes from the cotton and sugar plantations of the South. Do not be- 
li !ve my friend in this — the negro is not better nor more skilful than you. Your skill and 
knowledge will protect you against his interference with you in your several branches. What 
do you think of the Democratic party when it defends itself by such insults to you, right to 
your face ? 

But there are other reasons why the negro will not come to the North. Why don't you 
raise oranges in your garden? Is there a soldier here who has served in the Army of the 
Gulf? Let him tell me whether, when the wintry winds are howling round us. and our rivers 
are ice-bound, the fields of Louisiana are not green, and the air fragrant with the odor of the 
orange-blossom, the magnolia, the rose, and other most highly colored and perfumed flowers? 
If there is such a soldier here. 1 ask him whether he was not fascinated by the spring month 
of February in Louisiana, and he will tell me that lie was. I ask him, then, why he does not 
plant around his Northern home the same delicious flowers, and have the orange bloom in 
February here? He answers, "It is against nature; nature has something to do with that." 
Pray, has nature nothing to do with the negro, or was he made by magic, to gratify the con- 
stitutional scruples of the Democratic party? I have an idea that nature has something to 
do with the negro, too. Like the orange and the other tropical plants, he comes from near 
the sun, and was made to live in warm climates. You punish the negro when you doom him 
to a climate, in which there are long, cold winters. He thrives in the South. There, where 
we lose our teeth early — where we become yellow-skinned, bilious beings — want wigs at thirty, 
and totter to our graves, old men, at fifty — the negro lives to be eighty and a hundred, and 
carries a head white as the driven snow; but here, in the cold North, we live long and prosper, 
and have large families. Abolish slavery to-morrow, and the colored people would all tend 
southward at once. Nature invites them to go there. There they would have companionship, 
because more than half the population of South Carolina, and nearly half that of other States, 
is composed of negroes. At the time of the breaking out of the war about 000,000 out of 
the 900,000 people of South Carolina were colored. 

••Why, then," you ask me, "have they come North?" They have come to escape the 
wrongs of slavery. They have run away, at the risk of limb or life, in order that they might 
own themselves and the wages they earn. They have run away that they should not live in 
violation of (bid's law. but that they might be married to wives, and be recognized as the 
fathers of their own children. They have run away from the taskmaster's lash, and from the 
law that would not allow them to testify against those who ravished their wives and daughters, 
or struck them down. They have come here to enjoy the common blessings of civilization. 
Make the South free, and there are not a thousand negroes in Pennsylvania who would not 
leave it. It is a Democratic humbug to say that you could coax a negro to live in cold New 
England, or upon the hillsides of Pennsylvania, during our winter, if he could go into the 
warm States with freedom and safety. 

[Mr. Northrop follows in a speech of an hour and a half.] 

.Indue Kelley, in replying, said: — 

My friend has given you a number of quotations from a book written in the interests of 
the Southern Confederacy, called " The Cotton Trade : its Bearing upon the Prosperity of 
Greal Britain and the Commerce of the American Republic, considered in Connection with 
the System of Negro Slavery in the Confederate States. By George McHenry." 

M r. Northrop— Of Philadelphia. 

Judge Kelley — Yes, George McHenry, a native of Philadelphia, but at present one of the 
representatives of the Confederacy in England. 

I could not understand how it was that my friend read the other night, at the Spring Gar- 
den Institute, a quotation from John Quincy Adams which made him vindicate the right of 
secession, while, when I came to examine the passage in the original, its purport was the very 
reverse, and was opposed to the right of secession. 1 now understand it. The author from 
whose work he had quoted the passage had garbled it, because he is in the pay of the Southern 
Confederacy as its foreign commercial representative. I brought here last night a volume of 
the Globe, containing the article, to show that the portion quoted was a part of a passage 
designed to support the very opposite doctrine to that which the gentleman cited it as advo- 
cating. In other words, the language of Mr. Adams had been subjected to the same process 
which was applied to the Bible when a man attempted to prove from it that "there is no 
Cod." There were those very words contained in a passage of Holy Writ; but immediately 
preceding them were the words, "The fool hath said in his heart." 

I now understand how the gentleman was misled; and all the quotations which he has 



given from that reel-covered book to which he has resorted almost every night, are quotations 
collected and manipulated, probably garbled and falsified, by George McHenry, the Liverpool 
agent of the Confederate States. I never learned the title of that book until to-night. 

The gentleman says that New England prosecuted the slave-trade, and that through her 
entreaties it was continued till L808. What says Alexander H. Stephens, the Yice-President 
of the Southern Confederacy ? In the speech which I had just read, he says : " "When we of the 
South wished to continue the slave-trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation 
of our land, did they not yield the right for twenty years?" Yet the gentleman brings you 
a book prepared and published in England for the purpose of making sentiment against our 
country in foreign lands, a book in which the statements are maliciously and infamously 
garbled to make foreign nations believe that New England, and not the South, began the 
war. 

He tells you that he is "the white man's friend." Then why. in God's name, has he 
steadily resisted the use of the black man as sailor and soldier? '"The white man's friend !" 
Then why not let the black man fight ? " The Northern white man's friend !" Then why not 
let the Southern States send their quota into our army? Why force Pennsylvania and her 
Northern sisters to furnish all the men for our armies? I claim to be the friend of Man, to 
stand by the Constitution of my country, and I believe that this war is to maintain for you 
and your posterity the whole of your country; and 1 also believe that, by fighting it out to a 
just settlement, we shall preclude the possibility of war again in your time, or till the latest 
generation of your posterity. The gentleman wants peace and proposes to secure it by estab- 
lishing along our whole border on the line of the Potomac and the Ohio an armed Confederacy, 
a formidable military power, so that we shall have to keep along the whole line an army to meet 
the force they may at any time send over to burn our cities and villages, as they burned Cham- 
bersburg, and as they threatened to burn Philadelphia, if they had not been stopped at Get- 
tysburg by Meade and our great army. Did they not avow their purpose to burn Philadelphia 
and New York ! and would they not have clone it, 1 again ask, had not Meade and his noble 
army checked their progress ? Yet the gentleman, being " the white man's friend,"' would not 
• let the negro take a musket to resist their approach or aggressions! He is so much "the 
white man's friend" that he would take from you and your posterity the public land lying in 
all the .Southern States, and give it to the slave-drivers ! Where is the evidence of friendship 
for the white man in facts like these ? 

Are you, my fellow citizens, willing to acknowledge the independence of the Southern 
Confederacy ? If you are not, you will say that we must carry on the war. And if we carry 
on the war, must it not be carried on by men ? And if it must be carried on by men, is it not 
better for the white men of the North that the negroes should carry it on than that you should 
do it ? The gentleman must mean one of two things : He means, either that you must fight 
to save the negro and your country both, or that your country must be divided, and the gra ves 
of your brothers and sons who have fallen in the service lie under a foreign Hag and in a 
foreign land. One of these two things he must mean, and 1 ask you who have heard him to 
say which. 

He has spoken for an hour and a half— spoken, I grant, with eloquence, with learning, with 
dignity, with wit, with humor; but has he told you how he is going to save the country? He 
says he is for peace ; and he wants to " save the white man." Is it saving you to rob you of 
your patrimony ? Is it saving you to dishonor the memory of your Revolutionary forefathers ? 
Is it saving you to give away your country? Is it saving you to establish along a thousand 
or fifteeu hundred miles of frontier, a foreign nation, against which we shall always have to be 
armed and prepared ? How does he propose to save you ? He has attempted to play upon 
your prejudices against the negro and the abolitionist; he has been humorous at my expense; 
but he has been as careful to avoid all legitimate argument, all statement of the manner in 
which he proposes either to accomplish peace or save the Union, as a burnt child is to avoid 
the fire. He has never come to the question or near it. 

lie has dwelt upon "the coming man," and insisted that I think the negro greater and 
better than any one else. Any child in your public schools who can read the speech of mine 
which he quoted would understand from it that I meant that if we could overcome the 
Democratic prejudice and take the negro as a soldier, he would till our armies and enable us 
to drive the rebels from the field. His manhood had been denied, and I saw that it was about 
to be admitted, and spoke of him as the " coming man." But my distinguished friend and the 
other Democratic leaders were then, as now, engaged in firing your prejudice against the 
negro, and urging you not to consent to his enlistment. In the passage he cited 1 lauded 
Grant, Meade, Banks ; and every General of whom I spoke, even Butler, whom the gentleman 
denounces as a " beast." 

Mr. Northrop — Did I apply that term to General Butler? 

Judge Kelley — I do not know whether the gentleman used that precise term ; but at the 
Spring Garden Institute he spoke of the odiousness of Gen. Butler and strove to overwhelm 
his name with terms of ignominy, though he may not have applied to him the epithet " beast." 

In the speech referred to 1 lauded all the Generals who had then distinguished themselves 



in commanding our armies; but I said there was work which thev could not do because 1h-v 
are not ubiquitous, and went on to tell how negroes could be obtained in Mississippi and the 
other Southern States, and how by making those States furnish their quota, we should ?et the 
men we required, and should thus be enabled to put down the rebellion. I ..sorted the rnm- 
hood oi the negro, and his fitness to be a soldier, and I asked that he might thenceforth be 
recognized as a man. I hat I repeat, is what I meant by the phrase, -'the coming man." 
And ye1 the gentleman played on that phrase for ten or fifteen minutes, to make you believe 
that I love the negro better than the white man. I leave the matter to your judgment 

He tells you that Mr. Pettigrew, of South Carolina, stood up for the Union until Mr Lin- 
coln s Emancipation Proclamation crushed out all his hope. I do not know how often the 
gentleman corresponds with Mr. Pettigrew or other distinguished gentlemen of South Caro- 
lina T never had any acquaintance with old Mr. Pettigrew; I do not know whether he is 
dead or alive; but I do know that the public papers, quoting from the journals of South 
Carolina, old us of his death and burial before Abraham Lincoln issued that Proclamation 
qnnTw-il Davis said over and over again that the only basis of peace to which the 

South wil consent is the recognition of Southern independence? Every one who sneaks 
authoritatively and officially for the Confederacy declares that terms of place to be const 
dered by them, must acknowledge Southern independence. And thev claim that their Con- 
federacy embraces Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Virginia. Let me ask vou whether 
yon are m favor of putting Maryland out of the Union, of putting Kentucky, Tennessee and 
Missouri onto the Union by transferring them to a foreign Confederacy/to bring its' line 
closer to your doors, and to strengthen its martial power ? No ; the gentleman is wrong-it 
is not I resident Lincoln s Proclamation, but Calhoun's dogma of State rights adopted into 
the creed of ^Democratic party ; it is the devotion of the Southern people to slavery, and 
the contempt of Northern Democratic leaders for the laboring masses, to which we are to 
ascribe our difficulties. At the coming November election let it be seen that every State in 
the North goes solidly for Abraham Lincoln and the prosecution of the war and '-'that old 
coon, the Southern Confederacy, will say, as its prototype did to Captain Scott • " There is 
no use firing your gun; I will come down. I thought that McClellan would be the man " 
I he Chicago platform promises them independence; the Chicago platform condemns the war 
as a allure; the I hicago platform promises an armistice-the resort to the speediest means 
for the suspension of the war. That which nerves the armies of the Southern rebels more 
powerfully than musket or sword, cannon or ammunition, is their knowledge that there are 
able men like my competitor, going all over the North pleading their cause, and their hope 
is that the North will yield to them on election day. and that thev will thus secure by the 
ballots of he Democratic party what they have not been able to win by the bullets of their 
soldiers— the independence of their Confederacy. 

. The -. gentleman says that Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation destroyed the last ves- 
tige of Union sentiment in the South by "inviting the negroes to rise in armed insurrection 
and cut their master's throats." I know the gentleman did not make that statement delibe- 
rately. You can all read that Proclamation, and I ask any and all of vou to call at the build- 
ing of the Union League, in Chestnut street, Philadelphia, and obtain a coin- of it In that 
document the President, after proclaiming freedom to the slaves and promising them the pro- 
tection of our flag, expressly enjoins them against any acts of unnecessarv violence If we 
had continued to refuse all sympathy for the slave, and' if the war had gone on until the fiVht- 
mg power of the whites of the South had been exhausted, there was danger of armed insur- 
rection among the slaves and free blacks; and in order to avoid that, the President in that 
Proclamation did what Alexander II. Stephens warned the people of the South it would be 
the President s duty to do-invited the people of the South, white and black, to come to the 
Hag of the country; he offered them all arms, and he expresslv warned the slaves whom by 
that instrument he freed, that they should not unnecessarilv commit any act of violence. 

Now what is the use of misrepresenting a great State paper to intelligent people like you? 
Most of you have read it, and all of you can get it. I promise to send to the postmaster of 
tliis town a hundred copies, that any of you who wish a copy may get it. 

The gentleman tells you that 17,000 Northern men have 'been' arrested. T deny it- but if 
such were the fact, and if they were all as guilty as the scoundrel towards whom his svmpathy 
flowed out so freely when he told you how the detective officer had tracked him* they all 
deserved to be arrested. The incident to which the gentleman referred occurred, if I remem- 
ber rightly, in one branch of the Gilchrist case, in which certain men were detected in sending 
great quantities of percussion-caps to the rebels from New York and Philadelphia 
Mr. Northrop— That was not the case I referred to. 

Judge Kclley— That is the only case of the kind I have ever heard of. The rebels were 
short ot percussion-caps, and there was organized here in the North a conspiracy by which 
they were to get them. A detective officer wenl to one of the men concerned in this con- 
spiracy, and, by a little lying, wormed the secret out of him. Thus we got an immense quan- 
tity ol percussion-caps, to be used by our army in shooting rebels, instead of their being used 
by rebels to shoot our soldiers. I think that the result quite justified the artifice. 



The gentleman objects to police officer?. Why, T see all through your village these men 
with stars ou. When a murder has been committed, the Mayor of the city and the Chief of 
Police gather about them their officers, and they devise every means to discover the murderer. 
In these efforts to apprehend criminals they often practise deception. Now, here are a body 
of men guilty of treason, the highest crime, and who are trying to murder freedom in the 
person of the greatest nation that ever existed. They burned our Chambersburg; they fought 
us for three days at our Gettysburg. Yet the gentleman has no word in condemnation of 
these men ; but he is horrified that a man in the service of the United Stales should tell a lie 
in order to detect conspiracies against the life of the nation. He may well assure you that 
he does not argue for the Confederacy, because if he did not so assure you, I am quite con- 
fident that every one of you would hold him guilty of doing it. I cannot, for my life, escape 
the conviction that he is defending that cause, and none other. 

Now let me say a word on the question of the wages of the people of the North. He tells 
you. working women, that the "rentless hut and hog and hominy of the slave" are more to 
him than the wages you are getting to-day are to you. 

Mr. Northrop — No, sir, not to me. 

Judge Kelley — The gentleman said that the hog and hominy of the slave are more to him 
(the slave) than the wages of the working women are to them. 

Mr. Northrop was understood to dispute the correctness of this statement of his language. 

Judge Kelley — -I so understood the gentleman, and I so noted his remark. If you will 
allow me time till the reporter can refer to his notes, I am willing they shall he the test. The 
gentleman has said as I understood (and I have no doubt, my friends, that your recollection 
agrees with mine), that the slave's hut without rent and his hog and hominy are more than 
the sewing woman's wages. I deny it. The slave's hut without rent and his hog and hominy 
are no wages at all. The slave men and women of the South year by year pay, and more 
than pay, for all the clothing and food and medical attendance they receive by the children 
born to them. Take the value of the annual increase of slaves, and you will find that it far 
more than pays for all the hog and hominy and jail-clothes given to the slaves. They do not 
get a ceut iu the shape of wages : and the increase of their families more than pays for all 
the support they get. My God! has it come to this, that a man who is aspiring to Congress 
shall come here and tell our working women that their condition is more deplorable, than that 
of those poor slaves of the South — that the slave's hut with hog and hominy is better for 
him or her than your wages are for you? Which of you will exchange your apartments for 
the slave's floorless hut, your apparel for her jail-clothes, with never a bonnet, and your fare 
for her "hog and hominy?" Which of you wishes for a master to sell your daughters for 
prostitution and your sons to lives of unpaid labor? He says he did not threaten you with 
the almshouse. I say that he did intimate that the slaves of the South are better off than 
you. because the Almshouse stares you all in the face, while the master is bound to support 
his slave in his old age. I have not the notes of the gentleman's remarks; but [ am willing 
to go before this or the next audience upon the notes as they were taken by the gentleman at 
the table. He did not threaten each one of you, perhaps, with the Almshouse ; but he was 
arguing in favor of the superiority of slavery when he suggested , that the Almshouse gapes 
before the poor man who is dependent on his wages, in case of sickness. I say that the gentle- 
man does but fairly speak out the honest opinions of the Democratic leaders. That is why 
they are willing to destroy our country; that is why they wish the South to succeed — be- 
cause they believe that if we will yield now, we never shall stand up for our rights again, and 
that there will be an aristocracy established of which they may be members. 

But on the question of wages I want to show you something. There are four millions of 
slaves in the South. They have had no money with which to patronize anything or anybody. 
They are not skilled in any of the delicate manufacturing arts of the North. Their earnings 
have gone to about three hundred and fifty thousand slave owners. The slaves have lived iu 
their huts. They are described in South Carolina as eating without knives or forks or spoons, 
and without tables. Their clothes are coarser than those we give to the felon in the peniten- 
tiary or the pauper in the almshouse. Their food is aptly described as "hog and hominy," 
with blessed little hog in it ! Her.' are four millions of people. We took the Japanese all 
over the country ; we entertained them at the Continental, in Philadelphia ; at Willard's, in 
Washington; and at the Fifth Avenue, or some other leading hotel, in New York. We ex- 
pended almost a million of dollars in bringing them here, entertaining them, and sending 
them home. Why did we make that immense expenditure? It was to open trade with Japan 
— one of the most exclusive and distant countries of the world. Yet, here are four millions 
of people, lying just along our border; and for these nothing has ever been bought from 
us but the coarsest clothing, and, sometimes, when the corn crop was short, a little corn 
from the Northwest. This war, begun by the traitors to establish a Southern Confederacy and 
resisted by the loyal masses to maintain the Constitution, has made those negroes free. Now, 
counting eight of them to a family, there would be five hundred thousand homes. They live now 
in slave huts without latches or hinges to the doors, without window sashes or panes, without a 
wooden floor — without any furniture, save what the head of the family can make with the rough 
tools at his command. Give these people wages, give them a chance to grow cotton on their own 
5 



ground, as many are already doing,* lei them in any way produce or earn enough to enable them 
to expend one dollar each per week, let them, 1 say, have, in addition to their hog and hominy, 

* How capable of enjoying freedom the slaves are. and bow much their freedom would stimulate 
Northern industry, and add to the resources of the country, may be inferred from the facts set forth in 
the following extract from my remarks on the bill to establish a Bureau of Freeduien's Affairs in the 
House of Representatives, February 2od, 1864. 

" Gentlemen say that the bureau proposed by this bill is to be expensive to the government ; that if 
the system could be made lucrative, they ' would love to do something for these poor blacks.' The blacks 
do not ask you to give them an} thing but work and wages. They wish to pay liberally for all beyond this. 
These men without a name, known as Tom, Joe, and Dick, have rented their one, five, ten, or twenty 
acres, and have produced a large amount of cotton, on which they pay the government a duty of two cents 
per pound. I find in Mr. Yeatman's report on the Condition of the Freedmen of the Mississippi the fol- 
lowing statement on this subject : — 

'• ' I visited quite a number of freedmen who were engaged in planting cotton on their own account. 
"'Luke Johnson, colored, on the Albert Richardson place, will make five bales of cotton, and corn 
sufficient for his family and stock, and has sold $300 worth of vegetables. He has paid all expenses 
without aid. from the government, lie commenced work last May. 

" ' Bill Gibson and Phil Ford, colored, commenced work last May, and will make nine bales of cotton. 
They occasionally hire a woman or two, and have paid their hands in full, and found their own provisions. 
" ' Solomon Richardson, colored, on the Sam Richardson place, will make ten bales of cotton. He has 
had one hand to assist him, and has a good garden and corn. 

" ' Richard Walton, colored, will make seven bales of cotton. He has only had assistance in gathering 
it. He has no garden, but has provided for himself and paid for everything. 

" ' Henry Johnson, colored, will make eight bales of cotton, doing all the work himself. 
" ' Moses Wright, colored, will make five bales. He has had his wife and two women to aid him, and 
all have paid their own way. 

" 'Jacob, colored, on the Blackman place, has made seven bales of very fine cotton, the best I saw, 
and equal to any ever grown in this section. He had some assistance. 
" ' Jim Blue, colored, an old man, has made two bales of cotton. 
" ' George, colored, aided by two women, has made eight bales of cotton. 

" ' Milly, colored woman, whose husband was killed by the rebels, will make three bales of cotton. 
She had two boys to aid her in picking, at fifty cents per day. 

" ' Peter, colored, and his son have made two bales, and raised a crop of corn. 
" 'Ned, colored, will make two and a half bales of cotton, besides his corn. 
" ' Charles, colored, will make two bales of cotton, besides his corn. 

" ' Sancho, colored, works part of the Ballard place. I was informed he would make eighty bales of cot- 
ton. He works about twenty-seven men, women, and boys. I called to see him, but he was absent. 

" 'Patrick, colored, on the Parron place, near Millikin's Bend, has made about twenty-seven bales of 
eotton. He has six or seven persons to aid him. 

" ' Bob, colored, will make nine or ten bales of cotton on the same place. 
" ' Prince, colored, will make six or seven bales of cotton.' 

" Adjutant General Thomas also tells us that he had leased fifteen plantations to freedmen, and that they 
worked them well and judiciously, raising from four to one hundred and fifty bales of cotton, on every 
pound of which the Government received a rent of two cents. I hold in my hand the account of sale of 
part of the cotton made by a number of these poor freedmen. It is from the second report of Mr. Yeat- 
man — that on the subject of Leasing Abandoned Plantations : — _ 

" ' Ample provision is made for such freedmen as desired to lease ground for themselves. Such as did 
it last year were eminently successful. I annex a statement of a few account sales of cotton grown by the 
colored lessees : the sales do not by any means include all grown by them ; besides there are many others 
who leased plantations, or parts of plantations, for which no returns had yet been rendered. 

Bales. Bales sold. Netting 
Samuel Howard 
Edward Maxwell 
Contraband 
Twenty-two others . 
Silas Stepheny 
Robert Cookley 
York Horton 
Sancho Lynch 
Henry Harris 
Sol Richardson 
Luke Johnson 
Richard Walker 
Ben Mingo 
William Goodin 
L. White 

Whole number of bales raised . 
Net proceeds of 101 bales sold 

Average of 276 " at $240 . 

~^f $90,479 80 

*« Poor Contraband, having twelve bales of cotton as working capital, may yet hope to earn himself a 
' local habitation and a name.' ' 

•• Under General Thomas' arrangements these people were hired at seven dollars a month tor an aDie- 
bpdied man, and five dollars for a woman. Under the influences which originated this bill their wages 





. 28 








. 12 








. 66 








. 27 


6 


$1,401 35 




7 


3 


790 43 




2 


2 


504 84 




. 75 


29 


6,897 43 




31 


9 


2,251 69 




. 10 


7 


1,642 13 




. 11 


9 


2,061 ls> 




5 


5 


1,247,60 




14 


2 


580 61 




4 


4 


1,023 94 




. 28 


25 


5,838 60 


. 367 


101 


$24,239 80 








66,210 00 



one dollar per week, and how much would the North get of it per annum? ft has been said thai 
the negro is as imitative as the monkey ; and I tell you that there is a greal deal of human nature 
in the negro race, especially those who are the children, and grand-children, and great-grand-chil- 
dren of white people. Better the condition of these people, and give them monej to spend, and 
they will begin to want whal the white folks have. They will not be content to live in huts with 
earthen Boors; they will want wooden floors. And when they gel wooden floors, they will 
want to follow the example of the white people, and have carpets on them. Now, what harm 
would it do to the carpet-weavers of Manayunk and its vicinity to have live hundred thousand 
new houses to carpet, even if the money did come from "niggers?" Would it hurt wages? 
Then these people would want sashes and glass in their windows ; and what harm would it do 
to the glass-makers of New Jersey thai live hundred thousand little houses required window 
glass? The colored women, instead of wearing jail or almshouse garments, would want ueat 
and respectable dresses; and they might even want these rotund skirts. 1 don't know what 
you call them. I guarantee that they would want everything of the kind that they could gel ; 
and I ask you, what harm it would do to have the women and the girls id' four millions id' people 
added to your customers for muslins and the other goods which you manufacture? What 
harm would it do to you to have the men and boys id' four millions of people wearing good 
cloth clothes that you or others like you had woven? They would want knives, and forks, 
and spoons. They would want all the comforts of lil'e. Again, in my district, along the 
Wissahickon, there are greal paper manufactories. Now, among the eight millions of whites 
in the South, there are nearly a million of adults who cannot read and write, and no one of 
the four millions of blacks has been allowed to learn to read or to write, though occasionally 
one would steal the knowledge. Pray, tell me what harm it would do to the paper-makers 
along the Wissahickon to have five millions of new customers for school-books and newspa- 
pers'.' 1 What harm would it do to the makers of printing presses and printing ink, to have 
all the poor whites and all the blacks of the South buying Bibles, and Testaments, and hymn- 
books? If. then. 1 say. the freed slaves should receive from agrh ulture. commerce, or labor 
at wages, an average of a dollar a week over and above what they expended on matters pro- 
duced in their neighborhood, the North would gel it nearly all for articles she produces. 
There are more than four millions oi' them, and there are Bfty-two weeks in the year; so that 
there would lie over two hundred millions of dollars to lie expended yearly by these now des- 
titute people living along your borders, in stimulating the industry and the commerce of the 
North. And I again ask you what harm it would do? J ask you whether, with two hundred 
millions of dollars of additional custom thrown into the North, there would not he a better 
chance of raising wages than there will lie if you should acknowledge the independence of 
the Confederacy and agree to catch these poor men and women, and reduce them to slavery. 
to labor without wages under a system by which the price of their children pays for their 
poor food and clothing. 1 ask you whether, with these people free and seeking the advantages 
of education, and a higher social life, there would not be a better chance for raising your 
wages than there would with them in slavery. Let us, then, maintain the unity of our country 
and the freedom of all its people, and it shall become so grand that the world will fear us — 
so powerful that no traitos will dare to raise his rebellious voice. But if we allow the rebel 
Stales to go in peace, and establish an armed Confederacy, with a standing army of half a 
million of men, so that day by day, week by week, and year by year, we shall be surrendering 
our sons and brothers to keep up our standing army, and the half of our earnings to fed 
our soldiers and sailors, what better will we be than the poor people of Great Britain and 
Europe? 

My fellow-citizens, I, too, am for peace ; but I am for peace when the last armed rebel shall 
have laid dowu his rifle ; I am for peace when the last fortification constructed by the traitors 
shall be surrendered to the government. 1 am for peace when the star-lit and heaven-illumined 
flag of America shall float proudly, freely, and unassailed from one extremity of our country 
to the other, and every man shall acknowledge it as the symbol of the power and supremacy 
of the government of the United States. 

have been raised to twenty-five dollars for a first-class, twenty dollars for a second-class, and fifteen dol- 
lars for a third class m;in, and women of the same character, instead of being compelled to labor for five 
dollars, now get eighteen, fourteen, and eleven dollars." 



Reply of Hon. William D. Kelley to George 
Northrop, Esq. 

IN WEST PHILADELPHIA HALL, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 6, 1864. 



PHONOGRAPHIC REPORT BY D. WOLFE BROWN. 



It is very fortunate, my fellow-citizens, that no question of veracity can be raised between 
my distinguished competitor and myself. What statements we have made do not depend 
upon the word of either of us. The witnesses are more than a hundred thousand to testify 
to the incorrectness of his representations of my presentation of the case at previous meet- 
ings. These good gentlemen (at the reporters' table) have noted every word. Four of my 
addresses have been published in the Evening Bulletin. The fifth is in type for the issue of 
to-morrow. Three of them have been published in pamphlet form, and distributed to the 
number of ten thousand each. Then there are the people who have heard us. I invite you 
to get the reports of what I have said, and see how utterly wanting in all the elements of fair 
statement the gentleman's narration has been. 

I have said at no time that " this was a war for the wages of the negro." I said that it 
was a war growing out of the conflict of two orders of civilization, and that it was made by 
the friends of the weaker and baser order ; that it was a war between, on the one hand, an 
order of civilization which claims that the laborer ought to be owned by the capitalist, and, 
on the other, our Northern system, which holds that every man, woman, and child is entitled 
to, and may by law collect, wages for all the work he or she does. 1 said that the owners of 
their laborers, finding that our free civilization was building us up into a great people in 
contrast with them, had determined to violate the Constitution of our country, and rob us 
and our posterity of more than half the territory which we inherited from our patriot sires or 
purchased with our money, or our blood shed on the plains of Texas and Mexico. I have 
pointed to the facts that South Carolina seceded seventy-six days before Abraham Lincoln 
became President; that the Southern Confederacy was organized nearly a month before 
James Buchanan ceased to be President, and that on the 12th of April, 1861, one month and 
eight days after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated, " his Southern friends and political 
brothers" had fired upon the flag and begun this war for the extension of slavery and the 
extinction, so far as concerned the Southern States, of the right of the laboring man or 
woman to wages, whether that man or woman be white or black. These are my positions ; 
and you will find what 1 have said in print; and I beg you to read my remarks and say whether 
or not I am a truthful man in giving you this statement. Thus I refer you to a hundred 
thousand witnesses. 

The gentleman told you (and he was excessively facetious ; he provoked the mirth of the 
youngest boy in the hall by telling you) that I had said that I had looked over the Globe and 
could not find John Quincy Adams's Jubilee Address, and that I would not have found it had 
\ looked for it in Watts's Hymn Book. He will pardon me if I tell you that I said no such 
thing. What I said was this : that inasmuch as he had misquoted that address I had brought, 
the Globe to show the misquotation. Having the matter in question in the Globe, and not 
owning a copy of the address. 1 had taken the pains to take this big volume into one of the 
city libraries and compare what is here with the address ; and I preferred carrying to the 
discussion my own book to taking a borrowed one that some friend might have got out of the 
library for me. My expression, on the second night of our discussion at Manayunk, was, that 
I regretted that I had not with me a volume of the Globe which I had had with me on the 
first evening, that 1 might show the manner in which the language of Mr. Adams had been 
garbled and misquoted. It may have been very funny that I should speak about the Globe in 
that connection ; but was it not perfectly natural? 

Now, my fellow-citizens, you have heard my competitor utter no one word to-night in favor 
of the union of the States. He did utter one phrase that lie has never used before, and it 
involves a principle that he has never before acknowledged. He spoke to-night "of peace 
aud union." During the six discussions which we have previously had he has spoken of peace 
only, and then of reconstruction ; that was, as I understood, peace and disunion with recon- 
struction or union possibly to follow. The experience of six nights has brought him from 
peace and future reconstruction to talk to you about" peace and union." He is making some 
progress in patriotism. 



You have, as I was saying-, heard him utter no word in behalf of the Union cause. You 
have heard him utter no word of censure of the traitors who took their States out of 
the Union and organized an armed confederacy to make war upon you, your country and 
vour flag. You have heard him utter no word of condemnation of that Secretary of the 
Navy who, while he saw that confederacy organizing, handed over to the rebels the twenty- 
seven tinesi vessels of your navy, and sent" all the rest but the four smallest across the broadest 
seas that would bear them from your country. You have heard him say not one word against 
that President and that Secretary of "War who stripped the Northern arsenals of arms and 
ammunition and gorged those of the South in the very hours in which Southern traitors were 
preparing to go out of the Union and make war upon us and our Government. You have 
heard him utter no word of condemnation of that President, that Secretary of War, and that 
Administration, that kepi Twiggs in command of half your army at New Orleans after he had 
written to them that he was a Slate rights man. and that if they left him in command of the 
army, and Texas should retire from the Union, he would feel it to be his duty to surrender his 
army to the authorities of that State, or to the authorities of any confederacy which she might 
enter. No fact in history is better established than that General Twiggs did, in the month of 
November preceding Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, notify the President, James Buchanan, 
the Secretary of War. John B. Floyd, and Adjutant General Cooper, in the very terms which 
I have repeated. Yet they allowed him to retain command until Texas did go out; and then, 
as every one knows, he did, in pursuance of the notice which he had served on the adminis- 
tration." surrender the whole of his army to the Confederate Government, and thereby give 
them a stock of prisoners, so that the first they captured from us at Ball's Bluff and Bull's 
Run were kept more than a year and until we could get enough to exchange them. Yet the 
gentleman has no word of condemnation for any pari of this! no word of condemnation of 
the men who burned Chambersburg— -no word of condemnation of the men who kept our 
armies lighting for three days on our own soil around the quiet little village of Gettysburg, 
and who announced thai if they were not stopped, they were going to sack your homes and 
mine, and burn Philadelphia as they did afterward burn Chambersburg. 

You have doubtless seen men at the street corners distributing bills stating what the price 
of matches among other things used to be, and what it is now; and my distinguished friend 
has brought you a newspaper, probably from the same press (for it is No. 1 of a paper that 
has never been heard of before), to show you how much the laboring women are suffering under 
our Government ; and in this connection he found it agreeable to sneer at greenbacks. That 
has been his policy all the way through, lie has not uttered an argument that has not been 
in defence of or apology for the rebellion. He has no word of encouragement for your sons 
and lirother.s who are carrying the flag of our country forward to victory ami to the establish- 
ment of a peace that shall never again be broken by traitors. J, on the other hand, met him 
fairly, and have shown how the rebellion and the Confederacy had been organized, and that 
Mr. Buchanan, in the beginning of December, 1860. sent a message to Congress announcing 
that theie was no power in the Government to maintain itself, and that if the Union men of 
the South should undertake to stand up for their Government, he would neither protect nor 
aid them. 1 have also read the opinion written by the Democratic Attorney General and sent 
to Congress with that message — an opinion concurring in Mr. Buchanan's doctrine that the 
Government had no right to protect itself and defend your country. 1 have also pointed the 
gentleman to the conduct of General Jackson when the State of South Carolina undertook 
to nullify a law, and showed him how ••Old Hickory" had sworn that "the Union must and 
shall lie preserved.'' and how he had found in the Constitution the power to make that oath 
good. I also showed the gentleman that lu- was uttering the doctrines preached by Benedict 
Arnold after he became a traitor, and read Arnold's proclamation in which he told the 
people that they had no rights which had not been violated ; that their sons and brothers 
were being dragged to the war under delusive promises; that freedom of speech had been 
suppressed; that the freedom of the press had been interfered with; and that in that appeal 
of the traitor Arnold after he had attempted to betray our country, was to be found (though 
it was not so long as my hand), every argument that my friend and the great leaders of his 
party are putting before our people now. 1 also read from a volume of authentic history, an 
account (if the manner in which Andrew Jackson had suspended the habeas corpus; and not 
only that, but had arrested and imprisoned the Judge who issued the writ. 1 also read from 
the Congressional Debates parts of the proceedings on a bill introduced by Charles J. Enger- 
soll. a Democrat from Philadelphia, to remit and refund the fine which had been imposed on 
Jackson for thus suspending the habeas corpus and imprisoning the Judge, and the burning 
words of Stephen A. Douglas in advocacy of that lull, and in defence of the constitutionality 
of the course pursued by Jackson. And in this connection I told the gentleman what the 
old men among my auditors know, and what the young men ought all to know from study. 
that Stephen A. Douglas made his fame by defending the constitutionality of Andrew Jack- 
son's suspension of the habeas corpus. 

I have met the gentleman's propositions and interrogatories, and have replied to them all, 
save, perhaps, one single question that escaped my notice, by reason of the expiration of my 
time. I have answered the gentleman fully and broadly in reference to the Monroe Doctrine. 



In reference to one of his propositions T put the question to him, whether it was transcenden- 
talism, metaphysics, or nonsense, and L showed him why I could not get at, the sense of it. and 
asked him to explain or modify it, that T might answer it. 1 have appealed to him night after 
night to make good one assertion contained in another of his interrogatories, and he has 
utterly failed to do it. Time and time and time again have I asked him to show me any one 
law of the kind of which he says in one of his questions there are twenty-three on the statute 
book. He is a lawyer; he has twice broughl to the place of our discussion his digest ; yet 
he has utterly failed to find one such act. And T ask him now, in your presence, to point out 
to-morrow night one law " having for its object the declared purposes of giving to the negro 
all the rights, immunities, and privileges Which have hitherto been enjoyed by the white man 
only." If he finds one law of the kind of which he asserts there are twenty-three, 1 will say 
that I know nothing about the legislation of that Congress of which 1 have been a member. 
Yet he tells you that he has been boring at me as though it were with an auger, and that all 
he could get out of me was " wanes for the negro." 

'!':. ■ gentleman is doing what the Southern leaders did before the rebellion; he is appealing 
to tin/ passions of his party to destroy our country; he is appealing to your prejudice against 
the negro : he is fomenting a prejudice against New England ; lie is fomenting prejudice against 
the Government ;md against its' currency, in the hope of giving success to the Southern 
rebellion; and in the course of this debate he has used as his authorities books gotten up by 
the rebel chiefs to delude the Southern people, and by one of their agents in a foreign country 
to poison the minds of European nations against us. 

That is strong language, gentlemen, but when you read one of the gentleman's early 
speeches, those of you who have read one of Fernando AVood's. will find that he quoted from 
that speech or from ihe book from which Fernando got it (and if so. he curiously hit upon 
just the same quotations that Fernando made) a lot of falsely alleged sayings of prominent 
Northern supporters of the Administration and members of the Republican party; and that 
he classed Wendell Phillips and Lloyd GTarrison in their early days as members of the Repub- 
lican party, and ascribed to the Administration party the utterances of those men made 
twenty years before the Republican party was organized, which was in 1854. I said to the 
gentleman as soon as I could get the floor. "The alleged quotations which you have read from 
Republican members of Congress are not authentic ; for when Mr. Wood had those extracts 
read by the clerk in Congress, several gentlemen to whom they were ascribed arose in their 
seats and denounced them as false, and asked Mr. Wood to say when or where or in whose 
presence they had been uttered." Yes, the gentleman is going around among the working- 
men of Philadelphia, on the eve of this great election, and employing the forgeries that the 
Southern leaders used to " fire the Southern heart," in the hope of creating a fatal prejudice 
against the Government. 

Now. 1 come to the Globe, and will prove by it that .John Quincy Adams never uttered 
the sentiments which the gentleman read and ascribed to him. Yet what the gentleman 
read was, so far as it went, the very language of John Quincy Adams. So. as I remarked 
the other night at Manayunk, the man quoted the very language of the Bible when he said 
'•there is no God." but he omitted the words immediately preceding, which were. "The fool 
hath said in his heart;" and thus by cutting off a clause of the sentence he made the book lie. 
although he quoted its precise language, so far as he went. Thus, by altering a question 
into an assertion (there is a great difference between putting a question and making an as- 
sertion), and by omitting the words which I am going to read, he satisfied me for the time 
that in some vagary, in some moment of fantasy, John Quincy Adams had argued in favor 
of secession. 

Do you know how my friend came to do this? He is too much of a gentleman to falsify 
the record, lie has been my friend for years, and 1 know that he would no more concoct a 
thine- of that kind than he would forge my name to a note. But when he adopted a bad 
. he took the books of the promoters of that bad cause; and when he took Ihe book of 
George McHenry— a traitor, though he was of Philadelphia birth, a nam who is to-day the 
agent of the Confederate Government in Liverpool — he had the lie ready coined ; and he 
would not have read it, had lie known it to be the forgery it is. Mark wlr.it I say; the gen- 
tlemen is travelling around and peddling out to the Democracy of Philadelphia the forgeries 
and the frauds got up by the leaders and the agents of the Confederacy with which we have 
been at war for n larly four years. 

Now. by converting one sentence of Mr. Adams which was a question into an affirmation, 
and by omitting these words, the fraud is perpetrated : — "In the calm hours of self possession, 
the righl ol'a State to nullify an act of Congress is too absurd for argument and too odious 
for discussion. The ri'-dil of a State to secede from the Union is equally disowned by the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence." 

Yes, the author of thai paragraph was quoted by the gentleman to prove that a State had 
a righl to secede! Mr. dudah 1'. Benjamin, in preparing a document to "tire the Southern 
heart," made misquotations from twentj or thirty Northern men. His speech is contained in 
this volume I The Congressional Globe). The late Brigadier-General Edward 1 >. Baker re- 
plied to that speech, and pointed out the forgeries and the frauds, of which this alleged ex- 



tract from John Quincy Adams was one. T made a comparison with the original, and proved 
the version given by Senator Baker to be correct. 

Now. I say. my country is at war. and 1 am for my country righi or wrong. If she is 
wrong, I will try. when the war is over, to put her right. She is, however, at war for my rights. 

She is at war for the richest heritage my children can have ; the memories of our early history 
and the Revolutionary struggle for freedom. She is at war to maintain my rights and your 
rights in the Southern States. We have the right, under the Constitution, to citizenship in 
every Southern State. You were not all born in Pennsylvania, even though you will vote 
here en next Tuesday. Some of you are natives of Southern States, some of Eastern States, 
some of Western Slates. Bui the Constitution of the United States gh citizens of 

each and every State the privileges and immunities of citizens in tie- several States. There- 
fore I have a right to go as 1 did to Massachusetts, remain there four years, meanwhile becoming 
u citizen, and then to return to my native State and in six months resume my citizenship here. 
If. because wages are low here, or for any other reason, you or I wish to settle in Virginia, in 
North Carolina, in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, or other State, we have the right 
to do so. and tin' < lonstitution guarantees to us, in any State to which we may go, the rights 
of citizens. And yet. in view of the fact that the war is for these greal rights of ours, my 
friend rose in holy horror and confessed before the people of Spring Garden thai he has an 
utter " repugnance to bayonets and knocking men's brains out." lie makes this declaration 
that the Southern members of his party may he encouraged in their efforts to rob you of 
citizenship in fifteen States of your country, and strike fifteen stars from its flag; and in 
order to delude you to follow him, he tells you this is "a war for tin- negro." Was South 
Carolina fighting for the negro when, on the L2th of April. 1 Mil. she tired on Fori Sumter'.-' 
AVas the Confederacy preparing to fight for the negro, when its Secretary of War. on the 
receipt of the news at Montgomery, Ala., that Sumter had fallen, proclaimed to the gaping 
crowd that before the 1st of May ensuing "the stars and liars,'' the flag of that Confederacy, 
would float over the proud Capitol of your country? Was it the Abolitionists that made 
this war? It was the Southern traitors— the women-whippers and men stealer- of the South 
— the people who do not believe that the laboring man oughi to have wag< s for his work. 

Now. let us look at the question philosophically. In the South there are less than four 
millions and a. half of people with African blood in their vein-. Among them are the sons 
and daughters of those who claim to ho the besl white people of the South. I had occasion 
tn tell the gentleman that we have within our lines the colored children of Jefferson Davis and 
his brother, Joseph Davis, and that the mulatto daughter of General Roberl E. Lee has 
frequently waited upon me at the Arlington House. 1 also had occasion to tell him that 
eighty-one per cent, id' the free colored people of Louisiana have white blood in their veins, 
and that seventy-eight per cent, of the free colored people of Alabama have white blood in 
their veins. And that in the veins of more than one out of every ten slaves pining on planta- 
tions there is white blood. I ask the gentleman by what process that blood was go1 there. 

Mr. Northrop — I have not been there and 1 cannot answer. 

Judge Kelley — The gentleman says he has not been there and cannot answer. I suppose 
he thinks that white men went there and had their blood drawn from them, and then drew a 
little out of each " darkey' 7 and pumped the white blood in ! 1 am sure that he thinks it was 
done in that way. He is evidently a believer in the theories id' Dr. Sangrado. 

These negroes (some of whom are as white as we are and in whom you cannot trace a spark 
of negro blood) number in the aggregate four millions and a half. Of the white people of t he 
country the whole number is about twenty-six millions. Yet the gentleman thinks the four 
millions and a half of negroes so much more sacred and important than the twenty-six millions 
of whites, that he insist upon it thai the war is for them ! Does your country belong to the 
negroes alone? AVas it for the negroes alone that our sacred Constitution was made? Was 
rt the negroes that boughl Florida from Spain, and Louisiana from France, and conquered 
Texas and admitted her to the Union? No. my fellow-citizens, the negro had no voice in it 
ail. It was we and our ancestors who did it ; and it is our property that the rebels are i rying 
to get ; and the gentleman is trying to cheat yon into giving it to them by reading from those 
books and pamphlets manufactured to "tire the Southern heart'' and embitter foreign nations 
againsl our country. 

The gentleman tells you that his theories are such as will keep Northern soldiers at home 
hereafter. 1 have asked him night after night to explain that assertion. Do you mean. sir. 
(addressing Mr. Northrop) to fighl tin' war to the end until our flag shall wave triumphantly 
over every foot of our country, and that you Democrats will fight il 0u1 more vigorously than 
we? Or do you mean that, when you get into power, you will surrender to those whom we 
have driven from the day McClellan left the command of the army ? What do you mean 
when you say. " My theories are such as will keep the Northern men from filling soldiers' 
graves m the South hereafter?" What do you mean? Are you not'opposed to using the 
negro soldier; are you not opposed to sending white soldiers to fight, and would you not 
bring home those who have gone to the fronl ? My friends, are you ready to give up your 
country and strike fifteen stars from your flag? That is the only way he can redeem his 
promise. Is it not an agreeable proposition to you who have been lighting three years? 



'• My theories are such as will keep all Northern soldiers from filling Southern graves here- 
after!" How. sir? What are your theories? Explain them here; for I have not been able 
to induce yon to announce them elsewhere. 1 know thai yon are opposed to the use of the negro 
soldier. I know that you have denounced it. and denounced the legislation by which it has 
been dene, and sneered at me for the part which 1 have taken in that legislation. Now, if you 
will not let the negro soldier fight, and if you will not let the white soldier fight, tell these people 
that you are for the Confederacy and its independence, and that you will hail with joy the 
•• stars and bars" when first they float over our capitol. So help me God, 1 never will. 1 am 
for war to the bitter end. as the only sure means of achieving peace. And if the Democratic 
party had not made their infamous peace platform at Chicago, and pledged an armistice in 
case they should come into power, the vigorous blows that Sherman and Sheridan have given 
the traitors, and the tightness with which Grant is drawing his patent Yicksburg- cord around 
them, would have crushed the rebellion before to-day. Even as it is, the men of Georgia are 
seeking terms of peace; and Sherman is treating with them as to the means of getting to 
Washington. The rebellion is crumbling. Its only hope is in the oratory id' men who pledge 
themselves that when they get into power, " no Northern man shall go to fill a soldier's grave 
in the South." If I had twenty sons and brothers, I had rather see the last of them die muti- 
lated upon the battle-field than that, after three years of such glorious war as we have had, our 
armies should fall back, and we beg pardon of the men who fired on Fort Sumter for having 
been so bold as to defend our country and our rights. 

The gentleman has sometimes said that those who talk of going to the war ought to go. 
He has never challenged me directly that 1 did not go. I am a little over fifty, and never 
was very strong; but, being here, I do remember one night when I said to many of you, 
" Come, boys, let's go !" And with my rifle and knapsack I went, and had the honor of at 
least a crack or two at the rebels. I am over age. and physically disabled ; but I have pleaded 
with my best friends, and with every brave boy that I love, to go; and the great cross of my 
life is that 1 am not able to go myself, and have not a son large enough to go. Many of von. 
my neighbors, know my little fellow, and that I am so anxious that he shall go, if his country 
ever calls him, that (though he is now hardly knee-high to a bumble-bee) I have enrolled him 
in the Courtland Saunders Cadets. 

What! no Northern man fill a soldier's grave? Ho you [addressing Mr. Northrop] abhor 
the graves and the memories of the men who, during eight years, fought to achieve our freedom 
from British despotism? Do you regret that our fathers fought the war of 1812? Do you 
despise the men who during this war have gone out to die for our country, that here, where 
we are together soliciting votes, you tell these men that you will surrender their country, their 
flag, their Constitution, their honor, rather than let another man fill a soldier's grave ? There 
are some things worse than death. I .would rather die than have history record the fact that 
I sold my birthright for a mess of pottage; and he who sells his country for a cowardly peace 
is mean beside the man who sells his birthright for so small a consideration. 

The gentleman talks of "our rights as Pennsylvanians." What are our rights? They are 
such as the Constitution guarantees us ; and I challenge him again to-night to point to a single 
right invaded by Abraham Lincoln. I have been challenging him time and time again. 
To-night, when he professed to answer, what catalogue of wrongs did he present? He sub- 
stantially read the first article of the amendments to the Constitution, and added that Mr. Lincoln 
had "interfered with the freedom of religion." I ask him when, where, and how? I ask you, 
my Democratic fellow-citizens, whether you have ever heard of Abraham Lincoln interfering 
with the religion of any man. 1 ask you whether, in assigning chaplaius to hospitals and 
regiments and the regular army, he has not regarded every denomination. Do you even know 
exactly what his religion is? Then, again, the gentleman says that Mr. Lincoln has interfered 
with "the freedom of speech and of the press," and •'the right of the people peaceably to 
assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances," etc. Why did not the 
gentleman simply say that Mr. Lincoln has violated the first article of the amendments of the 
Constitution, and then specify the manner in which he has done it? "And," said he. "he has 
established unusual punishments, such as banishment." He has banished but one man, Clement 
L. Vallaudigham. Did he do that illegally or unconstitutionally? Let us look at the <|ties- 
tion. What were the facts? In a time id'' war. a Major-General commanding a department 
had made a proper military order, and Clement L. Yallandigham urged the people to disre- 
gard that order. He set himself np against the act of Congress which provided punishment 
for those who interfered with enlistments ; he set himself up in opposition to the' commander- 
in-chief of a department, and urged the people to insubordination and resistance to the general 
commanding the army. He was arrested, and a military commission inquired into his case. 
The President did not send him to prison; General Burnside did not send him to prison. He 
was taken before a military commission, attended by counsel, and had a hearing. He had 
witnesses in his behalf, and he cross-examined the witnesses against him. There was a regular 
finding- of the court, and he was adjudged guilty. Was he hurried off then? No; he sued 
out a habeas corpus from Judge Leavitt, a judge appointed either by Franklin Pierce or James 
Buchanan (I forget which) as district judge of the United States for that district. He had 
a hearing before Judge Leavitt, who decided that his arrest was legal, that the commission 



before -which he had been tried was legal* and handed him over to the punishment to which 
the commission had adjudged him. Now, the President, more lenient than the commission, 
instead of confining him, sent him to the friends whose wicked cause he had been sustaining. 
That was his punishment. There is the whole case, and 1 challenge the gentleman to poinl 
to a more constitutional act than that. 

It won't do for a man who claims to be a patriot to come here, and slander and revile and 
vilify the Government and all its officers when it. is in the agony of a greal war. It is not 
patriotic, it is not wise; and you. my fellow citizens of the Twenty-fourth Ward, whose -ens 
and brothers, and kinsmen and friends are under arms in this great war, will not sustain any 
man in such a course. It has been the custom of the gentleman on each occasion to assure 
the audience that he was not arguing in favor of the rebellion; and ['have reminded our 
hearers that it was not necessary for me to give them any such assurance. 1 speak DQJ con- 
victions plainly, and 1 do not need to tell my auditors on which side 1 stand. 

The gentleman, to frighten you from the further prosecution of the war in which we are 
engaged, speaks of it as interminable. It only promised to lie interminable when we hail a 
general who would not let our armies advance, who pul them in a position where they could 
do nothing, and ordered them to retreat just when they were winning a victory, as was the 
case at Malvern Hill. From the time Granl has had command of our armies, their march 
has been victorious. Sherman holds the whole system of Southern railroads. There never will 
be another raid up the Valley. Grant is. as I have -aid, drawing his patent Vicksburg cord 
around Petersburg and Richmond; so that Jeff Davis, the first distinguished rat to desert 
the falling house of the Confederacy, has gone to Macon. 'lake away from the rebels, as 1 
have said, the hope that McClellan, and the peace party may triumph, and they would "cave 
in" before the November election. 

As 1 have had occasion to say elsewhere, the war began upon the banks of the Susque- 
hanna. It was between there and Baltimore that the bridges were burned. The first time 
1 saw the rebel flag it was floating over the little village of Havre de Grace, on the south 
bank of the Susquehanna; and then Ben Butler was sending troops down the bay and around 
by way of Annapolis, to protect our < lapital. Maryland was against us. Kentucky was against 
us. Tennessee, all but the eastern part and including the Government and the power of the 
State, was against us. Missouri hung quivering in the balance, until Lyon determined ii for 
us. We had not a foot of land in North Carolina. South Carolina. Florida, Louisiana, Texas, 
Mississippi and Arkansas — not a foot. Does not our flan now float proudly over parts of all 
those Stales? Do not the rebels proclaim that the lives of men are now invaluable to them ? 
Have they not gathered into their armies their boys of fourteen and their men of sixty ? So 
that, although J am not liable to draft or military duty here. 1 would have nearly ten years of 
it before me, if I were in the Confederacy. It does not make any matter whether a man has 
hair on his head or teeth in his mouth, if he is between the ages of fourteen and sixty, and within 
the bounds of the Confederacy, he must be a soldier. Yet the gentleman tells you that the 
war will be interminable. Oh. no ! come out and say as I do, and induce your party leaders 
to say — that the war shall be fought for the supremacy of the Constitution over every inch 
of your country, and you will crush the rebellion, and there need be no more "Northern 
soldiers buried in Southern graves." It wants but that one gun to burst their Confederacy 
into thin air. Your sympathy is their last strong fortification. 

The gentleman has reiterated to you his assertion of Saturday night, that the slave's house 
and his clothes and food are better pay than the sewing women of Philadelphia get. He 
phrased it differently on a previous evening, at Manayunk ; he then said the slave's " rentless 
hut, with his hog and hominy, and clothes." Now, gentlemen, what is his rentless hut ? It 
is a hut without glass in the windows, without hinges to the doors, with a (day floor, and with 
but one apartment. That is the slave's hut. What is his food ? Turn to Stroud's Laws of the 
Slave States and see. You men who have been in the South as soldiers, know that it is coarse 
hominy and coarser hog, with mighty little of the hot;- ; You know that the slave'.- apparel 
consists of one pair of coarse brogans, and not more than one suit of clothing in a year; and 
that it is such clothing as we give the felon and the pauper. That is what the slave gets for 
his year's labor. And the gentleman lias the temerity to say that it is better wages than the 
sewing women of the North get? 1 deny to you. my fellow-citizens, as I did when the asser- 
tion was first made, that it is wages for labor at all. The slaves pay for all they eat and all 
they wear, and all the medical attendance they receive by the sale of their children. The 
increase of slaves every year by procreation more than pays for all the food, clothing, and 
medicine the slaves on Southern plantations get. They get no wages for their work. My 
God! men of America, has it come to this, that a man pleading with you for your suffrages 
shall tell you that women who dare not defend their own chastity, who cannot lie married, 
but are forced to bear children, and whose children are sold in their presence — daughters t© 
prostitution and sons to lives of unpaid labor — are better off than our working women of the 
North? He points you with horror to some alleged instance in which a sewing girl was 
seduced by her employer. Oh. my God! let him enter the slave-hut and see the slave's fair 
daughter — the slave with one-eighth of African blood and seven-eighths of white blood in his 
veins — his daughter, the child of a woman as fair as himself, and she as fair as either. There 



he sits in his "rentless hut," and bis master or his master's friend comes in. and before his 
eyes proposes to enjoy the first sexual embrace of thai girl; and the poor father and mother 
dare not say "no." To ravish her is nut a crime— she is but property. By the laws, as I 
read them at Rlanayunk, their testimony cannot be heard ; they may nut lie examined as wit- 
es; and if they strike a. white man. they arc punishable with death. Imagine the father 
and mother of a poor girl in AVest Philadelphia sitting hand and tongue tied and seeing their 
daughter thus outraged. Yet the gentleman tells you that the sewing women of our commu- 
nity would be better off if they were only exalted to that condition. 1 do not agree with him. 
Nor do J believe that your wives and daughters will. This war, on the part of the South, 
was made in defence of slavery ; and if, when the war is over, we let slavery live, it will make 
war on our children again. And, 1 say that every working man. whether he lie white or black; 
is entitled to wages. 1 say that it is a crime to doom four millions of people to live without 
marriage. 1 say that it is a disgrace to Christianity and American civilization that a wife 
may lie violated in the presence of her husband and he not dare strike her violator, or have 
the right to prosecute him for the wrong; and that a daughter may be sold for prostitution 
from her weeping mother and ravine 1 father. And I say further that, as those who lived and 
fattened by this accursed institution (which we— 1 with the rest of the Democratic party, down 
to L854 — protected) have made war upon the flag, let their accursed institution die, and when 
the war is over, let no man lie able to assert that our flag floats over "the land of the free 
and the home of the slave!" But let it be the proud boast of every one that every American, 
without regard to his complexion, has wages for his work, and may strike in defence of his 
home, his wife, and his children. 

I know that yon agree with me. You may be a Democrat, and yon may have believed me 
to be a. " nigger worshipper," etc.; but I know that there is no man here who in the bottom of 
his heart does not say. " Well, after all, Kelley is light in that." For you believe in justice ; 
you believe in right; you believe in punishing the traitors who have committed the greatest 
crime that the eye of God ever looked upon, in involving this great country and this happy 
people in this transcendently bloody war. 

Now. one quiet word with you. workingmen, on this subject. Why is it that the emigrant 
ship that conies over here with laboring men from Ireland or Germany never goes into a 
Southern port? Are there not unoccupied acres there? Are there not coal and iron to be 
worked ? Are there not broad rivers there ? Is not the summer season longer and the winter 
season shorter? Then why do not emigrants go there? Why do they crowd into cold New 
England, where winter lingers for more than six months in the year? Why, instead of going 
into the port of Norfolk, where they can buy laud at five and seven dollars au acre just around 
the city, do they come into Portland or Boston, and travel thousands of miles over expensive 
railways to get to the great Northwest ? 1 will tell you why. It is because they come here 
to better their condition; it is because they come here to get wages for their work ; it is 
because they come here to have their children educated in public schools, and that they may 
rise from the suffering condition they have endured in the Old World; and they know 
that in the South a system of unpaid labor exists; they know that they cannot go there and 
labor and thrive, because there the free white laborer is looked down on with contempt, and 
watched with keen eyes by jealous tyrants. Will a man, as 1 asked the other evening, em- 
ploy a blacksmith at $1.50 or $2.00 per day when he can go into the market and buy a black- 
smith for a thousand dollars, and make him sleep with the wenches, and keep selling his babies 
to pay for what he cits and wears? You form Trades-Unions here in the North and prevent 
men from working below a certain standard of prices; and you support your fellow-workmen 
while they are on a strike. There in the South are four millions oi people who want to get 
wages, wiio want to join your Trades-Unions, who want to open that country for wages-paid 
labor; so that, instead of travelling a thousand or fifteen hundred miles over a railroad to find 
a field for his labor, your cousin, when he comes here from a foreign land, can walk right into 
the sunny South and settle down there. You Irishmen, especially, raise money to bring your 
friends out, and you know what it costs to get them to the distant West, These Southern 
laboring men. though their skins are not colored like your own, will, if they are free, want 
wages for their work, and will demand them: and when the Southern aristocrat gets accus- 
tomed to paying wages the white man will go in there, and the negro will go slowly down 
towards the tropics, his ancestral region. He never would have come here from the burning 
climate of Africa, but that despotism and violence brought him. Make him free and he will 
drift down toward the tropics and dwell again in the torrid climate of his ancestors, but on 
another continent. It is your interest, the interest of every laboring man, the interesl of 
every man whose kindred are among the oppressed people of England, Ireland. Scotland, 
Germany, or any of the nations of Europe, that this whole country, from the Aroostook to the 
Del Norte, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, should be free as it is in the North, and that 
the law should prevail by which every man. woman, and child that does an hour's work should 
be entitled to a fair hour's wages. That is what 1 plead for. The policy of the gentleman 
would shut out from these advantages the white emigrant coming from Europe, as well as the 
white man of the Northern city, lie tells you that 1 speak only for the negro. Men of West 
Philadelphia, am 1 not speaking for you and your rights as Pennsylvamans ? Pefer to my 



printed addresses, and yon will find that if I have spoken only for the negro, as the gentleman 
says, it is because he considers you and all other working men negroes; for I have steadily 
spoken of and for the laboring man and woman. 

Gentlemen, if I am too fond of the negro, it is because I am a Democrat and stand by the 
early teachings of the Democratic party. The last Democratic State Convention, which 1 at- 
tended, and which was held at Pittsburg, on the 4th of July, L849,adopted this resolution : — 

•■ Resolvt </. That the Democratic party adheres now. as it ever ha- dene, to the < '(institution 
of the country. Its letter and spirit they will neither weaken nor destroy; and they declare 
that, slavery is a local domestic institution of the South, subject to State law alone ; and with 
which the general Government has nothing to do. Wherever the State law extends its juris- 
diction, the local institution can continue to exist. Esteeming it a violation of State rights 
to carry it beyond State limits, we deny the power of any citizen to extend the area of bondage 
beyond its present dominion ; nor do we consider it a |>art of the compromise of the < !onstitu- 
tion, that slavery should forever travel with the advancing column of our territorial progress." 

That was the platform of the Democratic party in 1849. Now, why was this war made? 
It was because the Constitution of the United States did restrict slavery to the States ; it was 
because the slaveholders could no longer control the country; it was because they feared that 
white immigration might come into the South, and that under our naturalization laws and 
under the clause of the Constitution which makes a citizen of one State a citizen of every 
State, slavery might he interfered with by tic free laborers who would thus becom ■ citizens 
of slave State-, ami have; the right to interfere with it. Therefore they began to foster and 
disseminate the idea of a Southern Empire ; and they did this solely for the purpose of 
excluding from the limits of the Southern States the right of the laborer to pay. 

1 have shown you where the Democratic party stood in Is p.). [n confirmation id' the theory 
I announce, let me turn your attention to a little fact in our history and a little paragraph in 
Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address. When the men id' the South threatened to secede, 
to establish a i lonfederacy and to make war, the men of the North — Republicans, Conservaties, 
Bell-Eyeretts, all sorts of men except the Democratic leaders (and even some of them united in 
it) — tried to effect a compromise. They said to the men id' the South. " We do not want to 
interfere with your institution of slavery in the Stales. When you wanted to import more slaves 
into the country, we, by a Constitutional provision, agreed that you should do it for twenty 
years. AVe have aurested your fugitive slaves and sent them back, unpalatable to us as it has 
been; we have scarcely ever asked for a President of the United States, allowing the South to 
till the office nearly all the time. We have scarcely ever had a Vice President, allowing the 
South to have that office too. Of the Presidents j>ri>. tern, ot the Senate, you have had more 
than two-thirds. During the whole history of our Government you have had. without a single 
intermission, a majority of the Judges of the Supreme Court. Of the clerks, auditors, con- 
trollers, etc.. at Washington, you have always had two-thirds. Now, we will go farther than 
this. We will agree to so amend the Constitution of the United States that the people of the 
United States shall never be able to interfere with slavery — that it shall be left exclusively to 
the people of each State, so that if all the States but one want to abolish it, they cannot force 
that one to do it." The Southern leaders had professed to be afraid that by-and-by the 
Northern or non-slaveholding States would get a two-thirds vote and would alter the ('(institu- 
tion so as to abolislrslavery. Here was a proposition to prevent by constitutional amendment 
the possibility of any such occurrence. The proposition was prepared and offered by Mr. 
Thomas Corwin (a very Black Republican from Ohio!), providing for such an amendment, 
and it passed both Houses of Congress by a more than two-third- vote— very largely more. 
In the Senate the vote was 24 to 12; and in the House it was, I think, 133 to (!."). But even 
this would not do. They went out. They said that the incoming President would not approve 
•it, or something of that sort. Well, when Mr. Lincoln, having been duly elected President, 
came to make his Inaugural Address, he said: — 

"1 understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution (which amendment, however, I 
have not seen) has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall 
interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. 
To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, 1 depart from my purpose not to speak of 
particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision now to lie implied Con- 
stitutional law, 1 have no objection to it being made express and irrevocable." 

In the face of such action as this there could be no pretence that the people of the United 
States would interfere with slavery in the States. What, then, was their fear? It was, as ! 
have said, that the flowing tide of emigration from Europe and from our great cities might 
come into their States; that the great mass of white people who might thus go there would 
become impatient of slavery; and that, being Virginians, they would demand that Virginia 
abolish slavery; being Marybanders, they would demand that Maryland abolish slaverj ; and 
that thus slavery would gradually be extinguished. Therefore, in order effectually to .-hut 
out Northern men from those States — in order effectually to prevent immigration — in order 
effectually to gel rid id' the naturalization laws, by which the emigrant from foreign lands 
becomes a citizen of the State in which he settles — they made war upon us. Their hope and 
wish was that their whole great empire might, as Mr. Stephens, the Vice President of the 
Confederacy, said, " rest on the corner-stone of human slavery." 



Now, can T regard the truth and escape from saying that this war is about wages ? I have 
never said that it was about the negro. I deny that it is exclusively about the negro. It is 
about wages : and every man who lives by the sweat of his brow and the cunning of his good 
right hand — every man who expects to train sons to mechanical labor that by their ingenuity, 
skill, and industry they may make honorable livelihoods — has an interest in the question in- 
volved — in keeping open more than half our country to the enterprise, the industry, the 
ingenuity of those children of his. It is the white man's question. It is the white man's war. 
It is a war for the twenty-six millions of white men of this country and for the countless 
millions in Europe who look to this land of ours as a refuge from poverty, despotism, and 
oppression ; and the negroes, blessed by it as they are to be, being but four millions, are but 
a drop in the bucket. 

I now turn to the only one of the gentleman's questions which I have not fairly, and I 
believe fully answered: " Did you vote for and are you in favor of the act of March 3, 1863, 
entitled 'an act relating to the habeas corpus and regulating judicial proceedings in certain 
cases,' which allows the President's order to be an answer to any proceeding at any time?" I 
answer that I did vote for an act of that date relating to the habeas corpus, and will, so long 
as this war lasts, if I remain in Congress, oppose its repeal. It is a law for the protection of 
General McClellan for what he did, as well as of every other general who has served his 
country faithfully at auy time. While Gen. McClellan was yet true to the great cause confided 
to him, it became his duty to arrest the Legislature of Maryland. They were about passing 
an act of secession. There were many thousands of the citizens of that State who held the 
same doctrine as old Twiggs and my distinguished competitor in relation to State sovereignty ; 
they would stand by their State, if she should remain in the Union, and would go against the 
Union, with their State, if she should pass an ordinance of secession. It became known at 
a certain time that an ordinance of secession was to be sprung upon the Legislature the next 
day; and General McClellan, like a soldier, following a score of precedents of "Washington 
and the one precedent of Jackson, to which I have referred, arrested the whole Legislature 
and sent them to a fort, and so prevented the passage of the ordinance of secession. Now, 
every member of that Legislature, on his release, might have gone before some Democratic 
judge of Maryland and sued Gen. McClellan for damages, and had him tried before a packed 
jury of Marylanders and mulcted in more than he was worth ; and as there is imprisonment 
for debt in Maryland, they might have taken the commander-in-chief of our armies and put 
him in jail — the military power being, according to the gentleman's theory, subordinate to the 
civil power even in time of war. 

We have a townsman, General George Cadwalader. His grandfather was a general in the 
Revolutionary war ; his father was a general in the late war. He himself won the brevet of 
Major-General on the bloody field of Chepultepec. Doing his duty like a patriot-soldier, when 
he was in command at Baltimore, he arrested John Merriman, the man who fired the bridges 
between here and Baltimore and endangered our capital. That miscreant sued General Cad- 
walader, in a distant Maryland court, for damages to the amount of $50,000 for that act. and 
they would have seized General Cadwalader as they would have seized General McClellan, 
and taken him to their court. Then we should have sent an army to release either of them, 
and there would have been such a conflict as Horatio Seymour has been trying to get up 
between the State of New York and the General Government. We passed a bill, the one in 
question, by which all such suits should be transferred from the State courts into the courts 
of the United States. That is the great point of that bill. Now, were we right in saying 
that General McClellan should not be tried in some obscure county court in Maryland, when 1 
there were none but Secessionists to sit on the jury ? Were we right in saying that Cen. 
Cadwalader should have the highest court known to our laws to vindicate him, or to punish 
him if he had violated the law? To provide for this is the great characteristic of that, act ;' 
and an additional provision is that, in any suit of this kind, the order of the President shall 
be a sufficient answer. And why not? Is not every general in the army bound to obey the 
Commander-in-chief? Would not any general be liable to be shot if he should refuse to obey 
such an order? And should we leave General McClellan or General Cadwalader. or any 
other General to be mulcted in damages for obeying, like a good and faithful officer, the 
order of his Commander-in-chief? Would we allow a policeman of Philadelphia to be fined 
and imprisoned for obeying an order of the Mayor ? or should we make the Mayor responsible 
for his orders ? The very clause which the gentleman read has simply this effect — that if the 
President of the United States gives an illegal order of that kind, lie shall be responsible for 
it at the end of his term of office. The Constitution making him responsible by impeachment 
at any day during his official term. 

Now, gentlemen, what was there improper, unjust, or tyrannical in that law ? Yet the 
gentleman is going round cackling like a hen that cannot lay her egg, over the wrongs and 
tyrannies of the Government in protecting his candidate for the Presidency from as great an 
outrage as ever was sought to be perpetrated. Perhaps, however, he thinks that if the mad 
secessionists were to "bag" McClellan it would bring Mr. Pendleton into the Presidency at 
an early day, and thus suit his purpose as well. Now, gentlemen, there is the whole of that 
act, and there is my answer. I did vote for the act, and 1 will stand by it so long as the war 



lasta if T remain in Congress. I will stand by every general that performs his duty; and I 
will hold the President responsible for his official acts to the last dollar of his estate and to 
the last letter of the Constitutional provision that enables us to impeach him for any violation 
of either the law or the Constitution. 

I close as I began. I am for peace — perpetual, enduring, honorable peace — peace that 
shall extend from one end of the country to the other — a peace, in the enjoyment of which 
each one of us may travel on foot, in carriage or on rail-car through every town, city and State 
of our country — a peace under which you will be citizens, not of the nineteen Northern States, 
but of the whole thirty-five States of the Union— a peace at the end of a war so grand that 
the nations of Europe will say, " It will not do for us to trifle with that great people who in 
a civil war have evinced a power that Europe combined cannot display" — a peace that will 
forever teach ambitious men that they can make nothing by treason, and will limit their aspi- 
rations to the honorable avenues to fame — a peace that shall bless every man, woman, and 
child in the country. And while I am for all this. I charge unhesitatingly and unequivocally 
upon my friend, that the only conclusion to be deduced from his argument to-nigh1 and on the 
six preceding nights, is that he desires, prays for, and labors for the success of the Southern 
Confederacy, the division of our country, the striking of fifteen stars from our flag, the denial 
to you of your rights of citizenship in fifteen States, and the establishment over that vast 
empire of a system of labor under which the laborer shall have no wages save his rent less 
hut, the food his master may provide, and clothing such as we give to the pauper and the felon 
— a system under which the husband shall have no right to his wife, and the wife no right to 
her husband — under which the laboring man or laboring woman shall not have the right even 
to testify as a witness in court. In other words, that over that vast region embracing more 
than a million of square miles, he would reduce the men and women who follow the avoca- 
tions which you, your wives and daughters follow, to the condition of things, to be sold upon 
the auction-block, and to be enumerated in the bills of executor's sales in phrases such as 
"horses, cows, slaves, and other cattle." 

NOTE. 

In proof of my assertions, that the Democratic leaders have been engaged in a conspiracy to overthrow 
free labor and nationalize slavery as the condition of the laborer whether white or black, I submit a few 
extracts from their most eminent orators and writers. 

" The theory of free labor is a delusion. Slavery is the natural and normal condition of the laboring 
man, white or black.' 1 '' — De Bow's Southern Review. 

"The enslavement of the laborer is right in itself, and does not depend on difference, of complexion. 
Experience shows the universal success of slave labor and the universal failure of free labor." — Richmond 
Enquirer. 

" Slave labor, black or white, is right. Nature has made the weak in mind and body for slaves." 

" Make the laboring man a slave, and he would be far better off." 

"Two hundred years of liberty have made white laborers a pauper banditti." — George Filzhugh's 
Sociology. 

" The enslavement of the laborer alone can save society against the dangerous vice of legislative, inter- 
meddling between the laborer and the capitalist.'''' — George McDuJf.e, Governor of South Carolina. 

" The laws of all the Southern States justify the holding of white men in slavery." — Richmond Enquirer. 

" Men are not born to equal rights. It would be far nearer the truth to say that some were bom with 
saddles on their backs and bits in their mouths, and others born booted and spurred to ride them ; and 
the riding does them good. They need the rein, the bit, and the spur. Life and liberty are not 
inalienable. The Declaration of Independence is exuberantly false and arborescen.il y fallacious.' 1 '' — 
Richmond Enquirer. 

" In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life ; 
a class requiring but a low order of intellect and little skill. This class constitutes the mudsills of 
society, and of political government. The manual, hired laborers of the North — the operatives, as they 
are called — are mere slaves." — Hammond, of South Carolina. 

" There must be a class of men whose business is to dig the soil and tend the herds, and who must not 
be allowed to have any real or personal property of their own. This class never will, never can, and never 
ought to take any part in the political affairs of the country." — Hon. B. Watkins Leigh, of Virginia. 

" Free labor has failed, and that which is not free must be substituted." — Senator Mason, of Virginia. 

" Policy and humanity alike forbid the extension of the evils of free labor to new peoples, and coming 
generations." — Richmond Enquirer . 

" Slave labor should be allowed to pour itself abroad without restraint, and find no limit but the 
Southern Ocean. I would introduce it into the very heart of the North." — Hon. Henry A. Wise, of 
Virginia. • 

" I would spread the blessings of slave labor, like the religion of our Divine Master, to the utmost ends 
of the earth. Wicked and rebellious as the Yankees are, I would extend it even to them." — Senator 
Brown, of Mississippi. 



" We will call the roll of our slaves on Bunker Hill."— Hon. Robert Toombs, of Georgia. 

" The slave laborers of the South are far better off than the free laborers of the North. Our slave 
laborers are not only better off as to physical comforts than the free laborers, but their moral, social and 



domestic condition is 



" The condition of the slave laborers of the South is heaven on earth compared with that of the free 
laborers of the North." — Rev. J. C. Potsell, South Carolina. 

» 

" The Northern States, in rejecting slave labor, have destroyed order, and rejected the strongest argu- 
ment to prove the existence of Deity." — Richmond Enquirer. 

" Free labor is impracticable, and is everywhere starving, demoralizing, and insurrectionary." Rich- 

mo7id Enquirer. 

" The establishment of the Confederacy is a distinct reaction against the whole course of the mistaken 
civilization of the age. For ' Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' we have deliberately substituted Slavery 
Subordination, and Government." — Richmond Enquirer. 

" Free society ! We sicken at the name. What is it but a conglomeration of greasy mechanics filthy 
operative, and small-fisted farmers? All the Northern States are devoid of society fitted for a well-bred 
gentleman. The prevailing class is that of mechanics struggling to be genteel, and small fanners who do 
their own drudgery, and yet who are not fit for association with a gentleman's body-servant." The Mus- 
cogee Herald, Alula ma. 

" Many in the South once believed that slaveholding was a moral and political evil, but that folly and 
delusion are gone. We now see it in its true light, and regard it as the most safe and stable basis for free 
institutions." — John C. Calhoun, 1838. 

•'The band that is familiar with the plough-handle should never be permitted to touch a ballot."— John 
C. Calhoun. 

" We are told that men are not only born equal, but free. The very reverse of this is true."— South- 
er?!, Christian Herald, Columbia, S. C. 

"I repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much lauded, but nowhere accredited dogma of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, that 'all men are born equal.' " — Gov. Hammond, of South Carolina. 

" Mechanics for sale.— The subscriber has on hand two excellent carpenters, three blacksmiths and 
one wheelwright, all excellent mechanics in their line; young, strong, and healthy, of quiet and peace- 
able dispositions, and several of them are quite pious: all of which will be sold at moderate rates Per- 
7T? S ^" ^ aDt " f m 7 echanics are invited to call and examine these, as they are all desirable workmen."— 
W. G. Fenny maker, No. 50 Canal Street, Savannah, Ga. 



Closing Speech of Hon. W. D. Kelley ) in the 

Northrop-Kelley Debate. 

DELIVERED AT WEST PHILADELPHIA HALL, FRIDAY EVENING, 

OCTOBER, 7, 1864. 



PHONOGKATniC REPORT BY T). WOLFE BROWN. 

We close to-night, my fellow-citizens, the Erst discussion of this kind that, to my know- 
ledge, has been held in Philadelphia or Pennsylvania. The contesl was nol of my seeking. 
On my return from Maine, 1 was invited by my distinguished competitor to meet him before 
the people of the District, that, after having heard us, they mighl judge between us with 
reference to our principles; and while 1 recognized the superiority of his mental endowments, 
and appreciated his more varied and elegant attainments, I did not feel at liberty to decline 
the invitation, but having confidence in my good cause, to borrow a phrase from his letter, 1 
"at once" accepted the invitation, and am here to do my part in closing the controversy. 

My distinguished friend concluded the discussi I' last uighl by asking whether the Con- 
federate States were in the Union or out of it. It seemed to me thai thai question ought not 
to be put to me at so late a day as this; but I proceed to answer it for your satisfaction, as 
it, was propounded in your presence. 

Are those States in the Union or out of it? That seems to be a very simple question, and 
. is so to my mind. They W( re in the Union. According to my judgment and my very pub- 
licly expressed faith, they are out of the Union, and are no1 at presenl States of the Union. 
In order to know precisely the condition of that country, and the duty of the Government; be 
it in the hands of what administration it may. toward the Confederate States and the people 
of those States, we must examine more than one question. First, to whom doi ■ the territory 
they occupy of right belong? and next, to whom do the people occupying the territory of 
right owe allegiance? "When we shall have answered these questions, and examined in 
connection with them the question of government or political institutions. I think none of you 
will dissent from the opinion that the Confederate States are out of the Union. 

The United States extended, at the beginning of Mr. Buchanan's administration, from the 
Aroostook, away there to the East, to the Rio del Norte, away beyond Texas; and from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. The territory had been acquired by the righl of settlement !<;. our 
ancestors, and, as I have often reiterated in this discussion, by the right of purchase so far as 
concerns the States that were carved out of the Louisiana territory ; by the same right, so far 
as concerns the Florida territory; and by the double right of purchase by money, and by the 
incidents of war, so far as concerns Texas. Having been thus acquired, it was your property 
and mine. It belonged as well to the people of Maine and Minnesota, as to those of Texas 
and Florida. It was the property of their Government in trust for the people under the Con- 
stitution and laws. It belonged to our Nation; and when the geographer, whether he was 
American, British, or Continental, drew the map of our cquntry, he embraced all that terri- 
tory. That territory still belongs to the United States. It has never Keen ceded by our 
Government to Stale, Kingdom, or Nation. The people of the United States would never 
have consented to its cession ; for all the reasons which induced the acquisition of Louisiana, 
Florida and Texas exist as powerfully — nay, more powerfully to-day than they did at, the 
respective seasons of acquisitions. 

True it is that Mr. Buchanan, the head of the Democratic Administration, announced in 
formal message in the beginning of December, L860, that, as President of the United States, 
he would not and could not defend our right to any portion of this territory, if the people 
occupying it should determine to steal it ; and he enforced that announcement by accompany- 
ing his message with the opinion of his Attorney General, that the Government of the United 
States could not maintain its right to its own domain, if the people on it should determine 
to claim it as theirs. That is the doctrine of the Democratic party. From that doctrine I 
beg leave to dissent. 

So much for the territory. It belongs to-night, every acre and every foot of it, to us. and 
"we the people of the United States." to borrow the fust, phrase of the preamble to our ( !on- 
stitution, own it. 

Now. as to the people occupying that territory. On one proposition laid down by my dis- 
tinguished friend, he and I agree thoroughly. I stand by it. He, though he announced it, 



evades it in all his argument. It is that "(he Constitution of the United States is the su- 
preme law of the land." And I go so far as to say that it has been the' supreme law of the 
whole hind every minute of time since its inauguration ; that there has been no interval or 
interim during which that (.'(institution has not been the supreme law of every acre of our 
country. If then the Constitution be the supreme law, every citizen of the States of South 
Carolina. Georgia, Mississippi and each of the other Confederate States owed and does owe 
supreme allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and obedience to the Adminis- 
tration charged by the people with the preservation and maintenance of the Constitution 
and the execution of the laws. 

Flaving settled the point that the territory belongs to us, and that the people who occupy 
it owe allegiance to our Government, I go on to ask how they are or may be governed under 
that Constitution. 

Territory belonging to the United States and under the dominion of the Constitution is 
governed in one of two ways, and in time of peace can only he governed in one or the other 
of those ways. The first is by State Constitutions. When the Constitution of the United 
States was adopted, there were thirteen Slates; and under the National Constitution, and in 
so far as the people of those States had not limited their rights by the adoption of that Con- 
stitution, the Constitutions and laws of those States were respectively the government of the 
territory and people of those States. But there was a large amount of territory, not popu- 
lous enough to be organized into States ; and that was held as territory and governed by the 
United States. Part of it really had no government at all, because there were no white or 
civilized settlers upon it; but, as the column of settlement and civilization advanced, so did 
the Government of the United States, by the organization of territorial governments. 

Thus Congress would lay off districts large enough for a State, sometimes large enough for 
three or four States ; and organize it as a territory ; and provide that the President should 
appoint a Governor, a Secretary, a Judge, and certain other officers. Certain restrictions 
were put on the power of the people of the territory, but they were invested with the right to 
elect a local legislature, so that they might begin at once to make their own roads, provide 
for their own poor, and attend to many elementary branches of home government. Congress, 
by an unvarying and unbending series of enactments, beginning with Jefferson's proviso, which 
secured freedom to the immense regions north and west of the Ohio (first adopted in 1787 by 
the Congress of the Old Confederacy, and re-enacted in 178!) by the National Congress), re- 
newed in the bill for the organization of the territory of Louisiana in 1804, and terminating 
with the territory of Oregon in 1848, exercised without dispute the right to legislate on the 
subject of slavery in the territories ; and every President, from George Washington down to 
Millard Fillmore, inclusive, signed one or more territorial bills prohibiting or restricting the 
right to introduce slaves upon the soil of those territories, or hold them there; the whole 
policy of our Government having been to promote free labor and restrict slavery, which was 
regarded as a great wrong within its narrowest constitutional limits. 

Now. my friends, the territory embraced by the Confederate States either constitutes States 
in the Union, or it must be governed as we govern territories; or being in armed insurrection, 
it must be governed under and by the war power. I started with the proposition that all 
those States were States in the Union, that no act of the Government has impaired their 
rights as States in the Union ; and I cited the other evening, and refer you to my printed re- 
marks to find, the appeal of Alexander H. Stephens, the present Vice-President of the Con- 
federacv. to the Convention of Georgia that passed the ordinance of secession, in which he 
pleaded with the members not to take that fatal step, and averred that, in the whole history 
of the country, the United Slates Government had never violated or assailed a single right 
of any Southern State or man. His voice was not heeded.. That Convention and others did 
take the fatal step which extinguished the institutions and provisions which made Georgia a 
State of the Union ; I say this not now for the first time. On the 3d of May last I had the 
honor to discuss this question on the floor of Congress ; and I propose, instead of making a 
new argument on the point in question, to read a brief extract from the remarks 1 then made. 
•' Sir, a State is not immortal ; it has a mortal existence; it has its beginning, its transitions, 
and may have its end. A State may be killed, a State may commit suicide. The act of God 
may carry through the portals of death the entire people of a State, and extinguish it by 
reason of the want of citizenship. A foreign Power may subdue the people of a State, hold 
and exercise dominion over them and their territory, overthrowing their institutions, and 
establishing others in accordance with the views of the conqueror, thus destroying the State 
and reducing the people to the condition of subjects, from which they could only escape by 
successful revolution, or by the assistance of a people from beyond the limits of their State. 
"Sir, 1 have said a State may commit suicide. A sovereign convention of the people 
called to consider the propriety of amending, revising, or abolishing the constitution may 
abolish that constitution, and having proposed no new one adjourn sine die, submitting their 
work to the people, and if approved by them, the State would cease to exist. It might be 
succeeded by a monarchy, a despotism, or any othei form of government; or its territory 
might lie occupied by a foreign Power, or both people and territory be absorbed by a conter- 
minous foreign nation. This the people of the revolted States have done. They have de- 



Btroyed the institutions which bound thorn politically to this Government. They have organized 
u foreign government, ami seek to transfer to it part of our domain." 

Gentlemen will oblige me if they will, as my argument proceeds, carry in their minds the 
fact that the territory is ours, and that the allegiance of every man on it is due to our Govern- 
ment by virtue of the gentleman's first proposition, tlrat tin- Constitution is the supreme law 
of the land. The people of those Suites have abolished their Stale governments. They 
have, s*i far as in them lay the power, withdrawn their allegiance from our Government. They 
no longer send Senators to the United States Senate, or members to the United States House 
of Representatives. They no longer admit United States Judges, either of the District or 
of the Supreme Court, to go within their limits and hold court. They have seized our cus- 
tom-houses, post-ofiices, arsenals, forts, hospitals, mints, and other property. They have 
severed all the ligaments that hound them to our Government, and have organized upon our 
own soil a military government, and made war upon us, first tiring upon our flag when it was 
by the Star of the West, and again on the 12th of April, 1861, as it floated over Fort 
Sumter, when they -made open war on 70 United States soldiers who were there to protect 
the harbor of Charleston against foreign invasion. Are we. by reason of their violent and 
illegal acts, to surrender half of our country? Because a thief has come into your house 
and possessed himself of your casket of jewels, and shakes it impudently in your face, are 
you to acknowledge that it is his? Because a man lias knocked you down and taken the 
watch out of your pocket, and holds it to your ear and says : " It ticks as it did when it was 
yours; but it is now mine.'' are you quietly to say. "Yes, sir, it is yours?" Or are you to 
knock him down, if you can. and " repossess" yourself of your property, or if he is too large 
and too strong for that, is i; not your duty to summon the police, have him arrested, regain 
your property, and prevent him from doing harm to others? Your natural rights justify and 
require you to protect your property and resist him who would wrest it from you. At the 
head of our Government is always a President ; the office is never vacant; one incumbent 
holds until his successor is sworn in; the moment the President dies during his official term, 
the office devolves on the Vice-President. The President of the United States is sworn to 
" preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution." When these people first stole our land 
and other property, dames Buchanan was President, and was hound by his inaugural oath to 
maintain the supremacy of the Constitution over all those States. My Democratic friend, 
Abraham Lincoln was not then in office. 

The Confederacy was organized during the term of James Buchanan, and the President 
and Yice-Prcsideut of that Confederacy were installed in the month of February preceding 
the inauguration of President Lincoln. It was Mr. Buchanan, who, being President, apolo- 
gized to one thief, and said. "Take the casket; I have no power to prevent you." And to 
another: "You will find it a, very good watch; I should like to have it back again; but I 
have no power to prevent you from taking it. There is no law against it." And thus let the 
rebels go on iu their lawless career which was to result in the greatest war of history. 

.Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural, extracts from which you will read in the reports of the debate, 
appealed to those who were organizing in oppositioo to the Government. He told them that 
•he did not want war: he reminded them that he had registered an oath to "preserve, protect, 
and defend the Constitution ;" he assured them that, in spite of all they had done, the United 
States mails should be carried through their territory as theretofore. He urged upon them 
to consult the "sober second thought," and concluded by saying: "My fellow citizens, the 
.issue of civil war is not with me. hut with you." But spite of all this, on the 12th of April, 
1861, they made the issue of civil war. and stormed Fort Sumter. 

I ask every Democrat present, whether, under these circumstances, the assertion that this 
is a "negro war," as it was described last night, is not a wicked fabrication. Yes, it is evi- 
dently a war to maintain for you and your posterity more than half your country — to main- 
tain for you ami your posterity, and the millions of oppressed people of Europe and their 
posterity, the blessings of our Constitution through all time and over all the broad limits of 
our grand and heaven-enriched country. For this is the question of the war; whether the 
Southern Democratic friends of my friend (Mr. Northrop) shall build up a foreign Confederacy 
on half our empire, or whether the loyal American people will put down the Democratic. 
party North and South, and maintain the unity of their country, and the supremacy of its 
constitution. 

But let me proceed with the argument I was pursuing. At the breaking out of the war 
the Northern States had. according to the census, about four million white men between the 
ages of 18 and 45, and the rebellious Slates had about 1.300.1)00. This looks as though 
we ought to have marched right over them. But this statement alone is very delusive. Our 
lour millions of men were not only our fighting power, but they were the bone, sinew, muscle, 
and energy of our agricultural, commercial and industrial power. Upon them depended the 
maintenance of the la rue factories and workshops and smaller establishments, by which our 
people gain their livelihood, and by the industry and enterprise of which the greatness of our 
States has been built up. On the other hand, every slave-girl over ten or twelve years of age, 
and every slave-woman, except for a period of from two to four weeks allowed for a confine- 
ment, does a man's work in the field; so that, taking their fighting and their laboring power 
6 



together, the South were nearly if not quite equal to us. Our girls and boys are in schools ; 
our young men are in colleges ; our women do no labor in the field, and but little servile labor 
at any time. But any of you who have been South know that as to the question of hoeing, 
tending, and picking corn, cotton, and other slave products every girl of twelve years of age 
and every woman counts as a man. So that, taking the laboring and fighting power together, 
the two parties were as nearly balanced as belligerent nations often are. The South had the 
advantage of being on their own soil. Their base of supplies was around their camp, while 
we had to travel thousands of miles to penetrate distant parts of their country. We had to 
employ in transportation a great many more than the actual difference in fighting and labor- 
ing power between the two sections. They were at New Orleans ; we had to go thousands 
of miles to get there. They were at Vicksburg and Port Hudson ; we had to go thousands 
of miles to get there. They were at Atlanta; Sherman fought nearly a thousand miles to 
get there, and he now has to protect his long line of communication. So that, with regard 
to the chances of successful war, the rebels at the beginning had greatly the advantage. I 
saw this, as did many other men ; and from the day when the insurgents fired on our flag. I 
urged our Government to do what 1 think it ought to have done — issue a proclamation forth- 
with, offering protection and arms to every loyal Southern man who would come to our flag, 
and promising employment and wages to the family of every such man. They ought not to 
have confined it to the red-whiskered men. or to the men with light hair, or to the men with 
light complexion ; they ought to have said to all the men of the South. " We arc your Govern- 
ment, come and support your flag. We have arms for you ; and we will protect your families 
while you fight for the supremacy of the Constitution and the unity of the country." But 
my friend, and the leaders of his party, went about the country saying to the Democrats and 
the more " conservative" men, "Abe Lincoln and his friends are getting up a war to make 
the nigger your equal;" and they inflamed the passions of the people so that the Government 
did not dare take away from the South its laborers and put arms in their hands. 

This was the first great service the Democratic party did the rebellion. They kept the 
Rebels well supplied with labor, and, during the first eighteen months or two years, threw the 
whole burden of the war upon the white men of the North. We wanted to make each Southern 
State furnish without regard to complexion of the man its quota to our army. They said " No ; 
the white men of the North had better die than that we should make soldiers of the negroes." 
They played upon your passions and the passions of other men in the country, so that the 
Government did not dare to enfeeble the rebellion by withdrawing its laborers from it. To 
such appeals, from the mouths of my friend and his companions may be charged more than a 
hundred thousand graves of Northern youth and men ; for if we had taken the negro on the 
first day of the war, not one-half the number of white soldiers that have been required would 
have been called to the field. 

But was it constitutional, was it legal, thus to take the slaves of the South and employ 
them in forwarding the success of our cause ? I turn you to a decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, made at the March term, 1863. That tribunal, in deciding the case of 
the claimants of the schooner Brilliant, etc., vs. the United States, declared that " when the 
regular course of justice is interrupted by revolt, rebellion, or insurrection, so that the courts 
of justice cannot be kept open, civil war exists, and hostilities may be prosecuted on the same 
footing as if those opposing the Government were foreign enemies invading the land." 

Is not ' ; the regular course of justice interrupted" in the rebellious States, "by revolt, 
rebellion, or insurrection?" Do they permit a United States Judge to sit in any of their 
courts and administer the laws of the United States ? No ; and from the time they thus, by 
their rebellion, obstructed "the regular course of justice," it was, according to this decision, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, the duty of our Government to conduct that war 
" asif those opposing lite Government were foreign enemies invading the land." And in the 
same opinion, that Court held that " all persons residing within this territory" (that of the 
Confederacy) , "whose property maybe used to increase the revenue of the hostile power, are, 
in this contest, liable to be treated as enemies. * * * Whether property be liable to 
capture as enemies' property does not in any manner depend upon the personal allegiance of 
the owner." 

In other words, the court decided that the rebels were to be treated as foreign enemies 
invading our soil, and that it was our right to seize all the property of every citizen of that 
territory that could be made available for strengthening our enemies. 

But the gentleman says we had no right to take their slaves, because it was unconstitutional. 
I have shown you that they have discarded the Constitution, have trampled and spit upon it, 
and made war upon those who maintained it. You cannot reject an instrument and yet claim 
your benefits under it. The Supreme Court has decided that you can take the property of 
belligerents, and there it stands. No man will deny that slaves digging entrenchments, haul- 
ing cannon, furnishing commissary and quartermaster stores, and doing all that the slaves of 
rebels have done, were property, and property used to aid in carrying on the war. Therefore, 
under the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, it was not only the right but 
the duty of the Government to seize that property. 

But let not the assertion of this right rest on a single decision of our own court. In the 



very same case, that court, following every writer on international law from Grotins to Philli- 
more, decided that the right of one belligerent not only to coerce the other by direct force, 
but also to cripple his resources by the seizure or destruction of his property, is a necessary 
result of a state of war. 

Let us, then, come back to the question : Are slaves property? If they are, it is our right 
by the broad code of international law— it is our right by the express decision of the Supreme 
Court to seize that property and prevent the enemy from using it. and to put it to use our- 
selves to bring the war to an end. I say that slaves are property. But my friend may 
quibble, and say that slaves are persons and not property, and that the slaveholder owns, 
under the Constitution, only the right to the slave's labor— that slavery is a debt— that the 
slave owes his labor and service to his master in return for his food, clothing, and medicine. 
Very well, then ; I will consider slavery as a debt. I have demonstrated that, if slaves are 
property, we must take such property. I now look at the slave as a person owing a debt. 

One of the clearest principles laid down in international law is. that two governments being 
at war, either of them may confiscate del its due to citizens of the other. Thus, in Vattel I 
find perhaps the clearest expression of the principle. 

"We have a right," says Vattel (Book 3, sec. 161), "to deprive our enemy of his posses- 
sions, of everything which may augment his strength and enable him to make war. This every 
one endeavors to accomplish in the manner most suitable to him. Whenever we have an 
opportunity, we seize on the enemy's and convert it to our own use; and thus, besides 
diminishing the enemy's power we augment our own, and obtain at least a partial indemnifica- 
tion or equivalent, either for what constitutes the subject of the war, or for the expenses and 
losses incurred in its prosecution." 

Again, in Book 3, sec. 77, Vattel says : — 

"Among the many things belonging to the enemy are likewise incorporeal things— all his 
rights, claims, and debts." 

This principle of the right of a nation to seize the debts due to citizens of another nation 
with which it is at war is as old as international law itself. That it has been fully recognized 
by our own courts, I will prove by reading a short extract from the opinion delivered by Chief 
Justice .Marshall in the case of Amity Brown v. The United States, .'{ Curtis, 48 : "The right 
of the sovereign to confiscate debts' being precisely the same with the right to confiscate 
property found within the country, the operation of a declaration of war on debts and on other 
property found within this country must be the same." Justice Story dissented from the 
opinion of the court in this case, but concurred in this principle in the following language: 
'• 1 take upon me to say, that no jurist of reputation can be found who has denied the right of 
confiscation of enemy's debts." 

My competitor is a distinguished lawyer, and he will not peril his reputation by denying 
any of these positions. Thus you see that it was our duty, in the way of humanity — it was 
our duty to the white men of the North— it was our duty as a means of shortening the war by 
crippling the enemy's power, to take their slaves and make soldiers of them; and the only 
reason that we did not do it earlier was that the Democratic press and Democratic orators 
inflamed the passions of Northern men against the negro, and cried out that in trying to use 
him to save the white man we were making a war for the "nigger." 

Now Congress did not hurry in the work of employing the negro of the South to assist our 
cause. It was all too slow in rising to the level of its high duty. It was not until the 27th 
of July, 18G'_\ that it passed a law for the confiscation of slave property, and at that time 
it enacted " That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against 
the United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such 
persons and taking refuge within the lines of the enemy; and all slaves captured from such 
persons or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the Government of the United 
States; and all slaves of such persons found, or being within any place occupied by rebel 
forces and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives 
of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not ao-ain held as slaves." 

That enactment was passed on the 17th of July, 1862. On the 25th of duly, eight days 
thereafter. President Lincoln issued a proclamation announcing the passage of that act, and 
warning the rebels of the South, the insurgents engaged in war. that at the end of sixty days 
that act would be carried into effect, and their slaves would lie emancipated. The sixty 
Jays rolled round ; but the fiat of freedom did not go forth for three long months and more 
thereafter. The thunder and lightning that were to make millions free were suspended in the 
hope that those who had once been our brethren would again resume their allegiance to the 
Government and bless the land with peace. But on the first of January following, Abraham 
Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of his war power, issued a proclamation 
which, after reciting certain premises, declares as follows : — 

"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the 
power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, in 
time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, 
and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of 
January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accord- 



nnce with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred ilnvs 
from the day first mentioned above, order and designate as the States and parts of States 
wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, 
the following, to wit : — 

" Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, 
St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche. St. Mary, 
St. Martin, and Orleans, including* the city New Orleans, Mississippi Alabama, Florida, 
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, except the forty-eight counties desig- 
nated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomae, Northampton, Eliza- 
beth City, York, Princess Ann and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), 
and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if the proclamation were not 
issued. 

" And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all 
persons held as slaves within said designated Stales and parts ofStates are, and henceforward 
shall be free; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the mili- 
tary and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of the said per- 
sons. 

" And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, 
unless in necessary self-defence ; and I recommend them that, in all cases when allowed they 
labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

"And] further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be 
received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, station.-, 
and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution 
upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor 
of Almighty God." 

Who says that that proclamation was wrong ? Which man among yon all will not say that 
it was made in pursuance of the law and the judgments of the courts? Which one will not 
say that it is sanctioned by the code of international law which has grown up through the 
long centuries? Which of you will deny that it is sanctioned by civilization and by Chris- 
tianity — that it is in accordance with the great history and the greater hopes of our country? 
Which of you will deny that, from the hour when the proclamation reached the nations of 
Europe, the heart of humanity thrilled anew, and over the hills and vales, in the cottages and 
huts of oppressed Europe, mankind felt that freedom had received a new guarantee, and that 
America was henceforth, as heretofore, to be the land of the free and the refuge of the op- 
pressed from all lands ? 

[Mr. Northrop followed in a speech of one hour and a half.] 

Judge Kelley replied thus : — 

My fellow-citizens, I submit to you whether, if a stranger had come into this hall as the 
gentleman began, not knowing the circumstances of the case, he could have told for which 
Government he was pleading, the Confederate or that of the United States; or whether he 
might not well have concluded that a body of the loyal people of the North had been assembled 
to hear a commissioner from the Confederate Government plead their cause and ask for time. 
The whole drift of his argument has been against the cause of the country and the Constitu- 
tion, and in favor of those with whom we are at war. 

He asks whether, as 1 say States can commit suicide, we are marching our armies after 
"the dead body." Oh no. sir. we are not going after the corpse, but alter the broad estate 
that our revolutionary ancestors left us, and to which our fathers and we have made such 
splendid additions. 

We mean to have every acre of it ; and we mean to reconstruct the Union of free States. 
The gentleman says that he and his party want reconstruction. Yes; but they want it under 
Southern dictation. We do not want "to hold provinces;" there is no power to do it; but 
while a foreign foe (made foreign by its own acts and the law of nations) stands in arms 
against us, we must, as we conquer that territory, hold it under military rule. What the 
government and the loyal people mean to do is to bring that territory and the people who are 
on it into subjection to the government to which they owe allegiance; and whenever they lay 
down their arms, reorganize State governments, elect senators and representatives to the Con- 
gress of the United States, allow the United Slates judges to hold court, and the United 
States postmasters and collectors to perform their functions, the war will be at an end. That 
is what we want. 

The gentleman and his party do not want reconstruction. Let me prove this assertion. 
We have admitted into the Union the State of West Virginia, containing 48 counties (while 
Pennsylvania contains but little over 60) : and having within her limits nearly half a, million 
of people. The people drove the rebels out of their limits; they elected delegates to a con- 
vention ; they adopted a constitution and asked admission into the Union. She was regularly 
admitted as other States have been. Yet the Democratic party, in their processions, carry 
flags witli 34 stars, because they will not recognize the reconstructed State of West Virginia 
by adding the thirty-fifth. When some of the people of that State sent delegates to the 



Chicago Convention the Democratic party in grand council assembled refused those delegates 
admission, because that party does not recognize the reconstructed State of Virginia. 

In view of these facts the gentleman's assertion that they are in favor of reconstruction 
puts me in mind of the anecdote of the woman and her drunken husband. lie had kicked 
the children out of doors and knocked her down, and then picking her up, he said, " Peggy, 
J do love you." "Do you love me, John ?" said she "Yes. Peggy, 1 do." "Well, thou.' 1 
replied she, -why the devil do you knock me down and drive the children out of doors, if yoa 
love me so?" So 1 say to the Chicago Convention and its adherents, " If you want recon- 
struction, why do you refuse to recognize West Virginia until General Lee and the other 
slave-driving traitors in arms against your country give their consent, and, meanwhile, kirk 
her delegates out of doors ?" 

No. fellow-citizens, the Democratic party do not want reconstruction. They want to recog- 
nize the independence of the Sou thorn Confederacy, and then to put this proposition to the 
people of the country — "Now, gentlemen, let us have a new deal. The mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi is just as essential to us as it ever was. New England has a. free labor system. New 
England, it is true, pays wages to everybody who works ; she has a common school system, 
and educates all her children and the child of every poor emigrant who conies within her 
borders. But New England is a manufacturing district, and Pennsylvania is a manufacturing 
disl rict. The South does not produce manufactured articles ; and. therefore, it will he to your 
interest to cut loose from New England, your rival, and go with your customers, the South." 
That is the argument they wish to make, and that is what they want to do. They want to have 
a, new deal and crowd out freedom-loving, wages-paying, Bible-reading New England, and bring 
the laborers of Pennsylvania, and lite other JYI iddle States under the iron heel of the slave driver, 
and into competition with the system of unpaid labor thai prevails in the South. That is 
why this gentleman, whose alma mater is in the bosom of New England, goes round excit- 
ing prejudices, on the one hand, against the oegro, and on the other, against New England, 
that furnished more men for the Revolutionary War than all the Southern States together. 
New England, the land that poured out (save the blood of one Pennsylvania negro who was 
assaulted in Baltimore on the 18th of April, 1861) the firsl Mood that was shed in this rebel- 
lion — that of the soldiers id' her 6th Massachusetts regiment, who were attacked on the L9th 
of April, 1861, in the city of Baltimore. 

Workingmen, this is a question for you to consider. What we are after is. as T have said, 
not the corpse, hut the grand estate our Revolutionary fathers left us. The gentleman doi 9 
not Want hundreds of thousands of Northern soldiers to hold the South in subjugation. Then 
.let him and the Democratic party say to the South. " We are going to fight this through, and 
you may as well succumb now as hereafter," and the South would succumb. Their only hope 
is in the election of the Democratic ticket, and the attainment of such a, peace as the gentle- 
man prays for. I answer him that we do not want to hold the people of the South in subju- 
gation. The people of the South are constantly escaping to us for protection. Take up a 
paper of any (lay and read the account from which of our armies you will, and you will learn 
how many deserters are coming into our lines, taking the oath of allegiance, air! being sent 
North. You will learn how many are taking up arms and aiding us to fighl the despots of 
the South; and in the paper of this evening ] read a speech made by Jefferson Davis, made 
at Macon'Georgia, on the 24th of September, in which he says. " We want our soldiers in the 
held, and we want the sick and wounded to return home. It is not proper for me to speak 
of the number of men in the field, hut this 1 will say, that two-thirds of our men arc absent, 
some sick, some wounded, but most of Hn-m absent without leave." 

Two-thirds of their army are " absent without leave," and yet the gentleman says thai the 
war is to he interminable, and he does not want Northern soldiers to hold the South in sub- 
jection for centuries. "Some sick, some wounded, hut most of them absent without, leave!" 
Aye! absent in the Northern States, seeking the protection of the flag they worshipped in 
childhood, and devoting themselves to the restoration of the Constitution of their fathers, and 
the unity of the broadest, richest, grandest country God ever gave to any people. And it is 
for this dying Confederacy that the gentleman pleads with you, men of the Twenty-fourth 
Ward, that you will hand over the graves of your sons and brothers who have died in this 

war. to an alien government, so that when you desire to visit those graves you shall I bliged 

to do it in a foreign land, and while doing it have a foreign Bag flouted in your face, and be 
insulted by being told that just when you had your enemies whipped, you became panic and 
terror stricken, and made a cowardly peace. It is for this that the gentleman pleads. Am 1 
not right? His closing argument last night was that we should pause and hold an interview 
with Confederate commissioners. He considers theirs a government which we should r 
nize ; and he said that when we should have come to terms, the armies could be withdrawn. 
That was his language. I say, never withdraw an army from our own territory while there is 
an enemy arrayed against that army; and least of all, in the very hour of victory and con- 
quest, surrender and withdraw our armies ! Whose country is it on which those armies stand ? 
Ours — ours by the right of inheritance —ours by our duty to posterity — ours by our duty to 
mankind at large. And do not pause when Davis almost weeps over the sad story of defeat, 
that now stares him in the face; do not pause, and parley, and withdraw your armies, and 



surrender into slavery two hundred thousand men, who to-night are under arms fighting your 
battles ; do not force Maryland and Missouri, whose people have abolished slavery, to re- 
establish it ; do not strike from the flag of your country the star of West Virginia, and do it 
all in compliance with the demand of those who have frightened the soul out of the lenders 
of the Democratic party. I did not mean last evening to challenge the courage of individual 
members of that part}'. I merely meant to say that the leaders had made a wretchedly 
cowardly platform, which, for peace, would surrender an empire. 

" Withdraw your armies when you come to terms !" Withdraw your armies ! Where to ? 
For what? lu order that Sherman may have to retake Atlanta? In order that Grant shall 
have to do again what McClellan never could do — put a cordon around Richmond and 
Petersburg? 

"Who saved your capital?" exclaimed the gentleman. Abraham Lincoln saved it by 
retaining McDowell, with forty thousand men, between Lee and Washington, when McClellan 
insisted on the whole army being sent to the Peninsula, that Washington might be left entirely 
uncovered. Abraham Lincoln, by his firm adherence to McClellan's stipulation that 120,000 
men were enough for the Peninsula campaign, and that he would leave at all times 40.000 men 
to cover the capital, saved it. The gentleman also sneered at General Pope. Who betrayed 
John Pope ? Ah ! it does not lie iu the mouth of a McClellan man to taunt John Pope with 
his defeat. Here are the proceedings on the trial of Fitz John Porter, and let me read yen 
one of the many charges and specifications which nine officers, all West Pointers, found to be 
every one sustained fully by the evidence :— 

" Specification First. In this, that the said Major-General Fitz John Porter, during the 
battle of Manassas, on Friday, the 29th of August, 1862, and while within sight of the field, 
and in full hearing of its artillery, did receive from Major-General John Pope, his superior 
and commanding officer, a lawful order to attack the enemy, iu the following figures and letters, 
to wit : — 

" ' Headquarters in the Field, Aug. 29, 1862 — 4.30 F.~M.— Major-General Porter : Your 
line of march brings you in on the enemy's right flank. I desire you to push forward into 
action at once on the enemy's flank, and, if possible, on his rear, keeping your right in com- 
munication with General Reynolds. 

" 'The enemy is massed in the woods in front of us, but can be shelled out as soon as you 
engage their flank. Keep heavy reserves, and use your batteries, keeping well closed to your 
right all the time. In case you are obliged to fall bark, do so to your right and rear, so as to 
keep you in close communication with the right wing. 

(Signed) " 'JOHN POPE, Major-General Commanding.' 

"Which said order the said Major-General Porter did then and there shamefully disobey, 
and did retreat from advancing forces of the enemy, without any attempt to engage them, or 
to aid the troops who were already fighting greatly superior numbers, and were relying on the 
flank attack he was thus ordered to make to secure a decisive victory and to capture the 
enemy's army — a result which must have followed from said flank attack, had it been made 
by the said General Porter in compliance with said order, which he so shamefully disobeyed. 
This, at or near Manassas, iu the State of Virginia, on or about the 29th of August, 1862. 

"Specification Second. In this, that the said Major-General Fitz John Porter, being with 
his army corps, on Friday, the 29th of August, 1862. between Manassas and the field of a 
battle then pending between the forces of the United States and those of the rebels, and 
within sound of the guns and in presence of the enemy, and knowing that a severe action of 
great consecpience was being fought, and that the aid of his corps was greatly needed, did 
fail all day to bring it on the field, and did shamefully fall back and retreat from the advance 
of the enemy, without any attempt to give them battle, and without knowing the force from 
which he shamefully retreated. This, near Manassas Station, in the State of Virginia, on the 
29th of August, 1862." 

While thus betraying General Pope and his army, Fitz John Porter was telegraphing that 
he hoped McClellan was pleased with what he was doing ! I appeal to history to prove this 
assertion. I stand ready to sustain it in any court of justice or council chamber of the world. 
Said I not truly that Abraham Lincoln by his firmness saved the capital? He had sworn "to 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution:" and in his annual message to Congress, of 
December, 1861, he had said, "The Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable 
means to that end must be employed." And slowly, but surely, he has used all " indispensable 
means," and if we sustain him at the coming election, and give him a Congress to stand by 
him, before that Congress shall begin its official term, you will find the whole of the rebellious 
States reconstructing and the lesson will have been taught for all time that the American 
people will not tolerate insurrection, rebellion, or treason, let who may be engaged in it. 

The gentleman holds up to us the history of Italy. Why, sir, it was early in the Christian 
era that Italy was dismembered ; and now, in the latter half of the nineteenth century she is 
reconstructing ! Every month of her intervening history has been a record of war and blood. 
And if we allow the American republic to be dismembered, it may be another cycle of war 
before the work of reconstruction begins. 



The rebellion is now fulling. It needs but the grasp of Grant, and Sherman, and Butler, 
and Farragut, and their brave men, to crush the shell ; and let us stand by them until they do 
it. Let us transmit unbroken to our posterity the heritage which we received from our 
ancestors. Let us proclaim to the world that the free institutions of America still cover the 
broad land of America, and that henceforth as heretofore, the poor and the oppressed shall 
here find a welcome — shall here find wages for their labor — shall here find the honors of the 
land open to them — shall here find the children born of their loins on the soil, the possible 
candidates for the highest honor "that the American people can confer. In other words, my 
fellow-citizens, let us, before we part to-night, pledge ourselves in the eyes of the nations and 
the people of the world, in the presence of the God of our fathers and our God. that, rather 
than surrender, we will lay down our lives — that it is the determination, unshaken and irre- 
versible, of each one of us, that we will maintain and transmit for all time, one Union, one 
Country, one Constitution, and one Flag for the people and land of America. 



Daring the discussion, a gentleman recently connected with the army attempted a diversion 
in favor of my competitor, in the nature of a flank movement, which called forth the following 
letter:— 

Philadelphia, October ?,, 1864. 

My Pear Sir: My attention has been called to a letter bearing date the 27th nit., which 
you have done me the honor to address to me through the public journals, in which you say : 

"Our acquaintance and all the relations that have ever existed between us are confined to 
two or three accidental meetings, at one of which you were pleased to refer to the lasting 
impression made upon yon. when a poor boy, by the kindness of my father, who always took 
you by the hand, and gave you cheering, friendly words of encouragement and advice! Yon 
were pleased to acknowledge to the son the kind and valuable influences received by you from 
the father, and to proffer your friendly services whenever they would be acceptable.'' 

You will pardon me. General, if I limit "the relations that have existed between us" to one 
casual meeting, which took place in the office and presence of my venerable and distinguished 
friend, Eli K. Price, Esq. I do not remember to have had a word of intercourse with you i i 
any other occasion. On that occasion 1 mentioned that our fathers had been friends, and told 
you that, in the office of the prothonotary of the court of which 1 was a judge, your father 
had recognized me by my likeness to his early friend, my father. That was the only time I 
remember to have seen him, but I shall ever remember the pleasant words he spoke of my 
father, who died during my infancy. 

The public will estimate the gratitude I owe you for this pleasant incident; but it was not 
to notice your personal allusion that 1 took my pen. 

You then proceed to quote a few sentences from the report in The Press, of the 23d nit., 
of my remarks at the meeting in Concert Hall the evening previous, and at the conclusion of 
the extract you say. '"Now, my dear sir, this statement is simply false, and, on the part of 
your friend Air. Edwin M. Stanton, maliciously false." 

The extract you cite is as follows: — 

"It got out that the President was determined to have the army moved, and it was found 
that General McClellan had no plan; and here 1 may state that we owe the Peninsula cam- 
paign to those distinguished Senators, Latham, of California, and Rice, of Minnesota, and a 
brigadier in the column of Joseph Hooker. General McClellan's plan was concocted by 
others, and put into his hands. It was agreed on in a council of war. That plan was sub- 
mitted to the President. It was submitted in the presence of Secretary Stanton. Stanton 
put them through a strict course of examination. One, General Bleaker, owned that he did 
not understand the plan, but would sustain it, as he thought he had to obey the mandates 
of his chief. General Naglee was one of those present, and Stanton observed that he had 
but one star. 'Sir,' said Mr. Stanton, 'you have no right here!' 'I am representing 
General Hooker,' said he. It was afterwards found out that General Naglee was absent 
without leave, and that Fighting Joe Hooker knew nothing of the council. [Applause.]" 

The report from which you clip this extract does not purport to be verbatim— nor was it 
full. I have, however, no special exception to take to the passage you quote. It embodies 
a fair statement of my assertions as far as it goes. It refers to what occurred during the first, 
week in March, 18G2, and must follow in the report, which I have not read, my statement of 
the disappointment well-informed men had experienced in the last week of February. 

I had told the audience of the hopes entertained by the President, the Secretary of War, 
and leading members of Congress, of the success of General McClellan's proposed surprise of 
the rebels on the line of Brentsville. You doubtless remember that the success of that pro- 
mised movement was said by the General to depend on the fact that it was to be a surprise. 
That no suspicion of his contemplated movement mighl be excited, he proposed that instead 
of constructing pontoons or hauling them thither he would collect in the canal canal boats, of 
which to construct a bridge across the Potomac. This he did at his leisure. All was now 
ready. " If anything was wanting he had nobody but himself to blame." as he himself had 
said. The morning of the eventful day arrived, and lo ! a difficulty, and a, difficulty which to 
the eminent engineer commanding the army was insuperable. It had never occurred to him 
to measure the outlet-lock through which the boats he had provided were to pass, and now 
jusl at the critical moment, as they were some feet wider than the lock, they obstinately 
refused to pass through! "Was it not vexatious ? I also told the meeting of the puerile 
excuses for the failure which he offered in the presence of Hon. Benjamin Wade, of ( >hio, and 
Andrew Johnson, then a Senator from Tennessee, and that he in their presence proposed to 
make another efiforl to surprise the rebels over a bridge which he thoughl could be built in 
ten days. Those who heard me will remember all this; and 1 am quite sure that General 
McClellan, infirm as his memory appears to be, can verify all my statements. 



I further said, in substance, that this fact, following the incident of the stovepipe at 
Munson's Hill and the wooden guns at Manassas, had exhausted even the President's stock 
of patience; but that he had, in the kindness of his heart, determined to give General 
McClellan a chance to redeem himself from utter ridicule, and had given him ten days in 
' which to propose a plausible plan of a campaign. It was then thai I said he had no plan, 
and that when several of the promised ten days had passed he was still without a plan. 

At this point of time, my dear General, you come upon the scene, and 1 reaffirm all that I 
said of you. Without attempting to reproduce the language of my address, I reaffirm this. 
not on the authority of one whom ! am proud to call my friend. Hon. E. M. Stanton, but of 
one whose word you ought to accept, as he was a graduate of West Point, a brigadier-general 
of volunteers, and enjoyed, in an eminent degree, the confidence of General McClellan, then 
Commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. 

Indeed, my dear General, he was commanding a brigade under General Hooker in Lower 
Maryland, which I think was your position when you received a communication from a Demo- 
cratic Senator. Mr. Latham, of California, which, though 1 cannot give you its precise 
language, let you know that. General McClellan was in (lunger of removal because he had 
stipulated to submit a plan of campaign within a certain number of days, and would be 
removed if he did not, and requested yon to hasten to Washington. I am quite sine, my dear 
General, that you will not deny this, nor that, in pursuance of that communication, you did 
hasten to Washington, and were chagrined at rinding that Mr. Latham had left for New- 
York. 

Nor further, that you found a letter from him awaiting you. in which he regretted that 
in connection with the Pacific Mail service imperiously demanded his presence in New 
York on that day. It, however, referred you to another Democratic senator, Mr. Kice, .of 
Minnesota, and told you to confer freely with him, as you would have done with the writer, 
as he understood the delicacy of the General's and might lie conferred with frankly 

ifely. Now. I say again, that 1 am sure you will contradict none of these statements, 
and ask you how my valued and honored friend, the Secretary of War, could have given me 
. which were meant to be so confidential? My other assertions of how you pro- 
posed the plan of the Peninsula. Campaign, and, as poll ay, "packed" a. council of 
are all equally true ami well known to you. You cannot escape by artfully suggesting 
that each of the twelve generals who attended that council was entitled to hut one star. 
Eleven of them commanded divisions. It was called as a council of division commanders, yet 
Henry M. Naglee, commander of a brigade, was there on the flimsy pretence that it was not 
as easy to summon his division commander, General [looker, as it was to communicate with 
him. Now, my dear General, let me ask you. in all candor, were you not reported as absent 
without leave on the day on which that council met. or are the records in error'/ 

Perhaps I have, by this time, excited your curiosity as to the source from which I derived 
such minute and accurate information. If so, I will gratify you. All this information came 
to me, not, as you assume, from Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, but from you. Henry M. Naglee, 
rigadier General of U. S. Volunteers. On the night of the 29th of March. 180L', you 
went in the cars from Broad and Prii I to Washington. Do you not. remember the 

buoyancy with which you related all this, and how T you exulted in the success of the artifice 
in which you had been so prominent an actor? My dear General, your campaign had not 
then b d, but now that the result is before us. do you not cower before the ghosts of 

the brave thousands who were slowly murdered by the malaria of the ( liny ? 

The gentlemen to whom you ad our conversation on the night of the 29th of March, 

1862,^ i srs. George H. Moore and George W. Hacker, of this city, and if you revealed 

your secrets so publicly thai others could not avoid hearing them, you must not wonder that 
they have published them freely. 1 refer you, and any who may doubt my statement, to 
Messrs. Moore and Hacker, both of whom are well known in this city. 

But, sir, you have boasted to others also of the success Messrs. Latham, Pice, and your- 
self had in constraining the President to retain Gen. McClellan in command. You know 
Gen. Gilman Marston, and. doubtless, remember the fact that you and he travelled some time 
later from Fortress Monroe to Washington together, he being at the time in command of a 
regiment of New Hampshire volunteers. Do you not remember how fully you detailed to 
him all the facts I have recited ? 1 do not doubt that you then spoke the truth ; the collateral 
facts prove that you did. But if error there be.it is you who are responsible. (Jen. Marston 
is a brave and truthful man. 1 know him well, and cheerfully refer any of our military friends 
to him for proof that you are yourself the author of the story you wantonly ascribe to the 
Secretary of War, and denounce as " maliciously false." 

Very respectfully, WM. D. KELLEY. 

To Henry M. Naglee, late Brigadier General U. S. Volunteers. 






/^tc 



